The Flood of 1934 was a natural disaster that hit the town of
Bridgeton, New Jersey
Bridgeton is a city in Cumberland County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the county seat of Cumberland CountySunset Lake and other local interconnected waterways. At the time, there were two earthen dams holding the water back at Sunset Lake and Mary Elmer Lake. Eventually the pressure was too much and the dams gave way sending a torrent of water down the
Cohansey River
The Cohansey River, also called Cohansey Creek, is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 river in South Jersey.. The river drains approximately of rural agricul ...
as well as tributaries connected to the Lakes. The wall of water surged down through the banks of the Cohansey, emptying the lakes and the Raceway and flowing into and through downtown Bridgeton, which straddles the river. All the bridges that connected the east and west sides of the town were destroyed. Also damaged was Tumbling Dam Park, where the dam that held the water of Sunset Lake was located. An estimated $1 million (equivalent to $ million in ) in damage was caused by the flooding.Fuhrmann, Doug "Local History: Massive flood cripples Bridgeton in 1934" '' The Daily Journal'', March 27, 2015. Accessed July 5, 2022.
Aftermath
In the aftermath of the flood, residents had no way of crossing the Cohansey River from one side of the town to the other. To go around the river meant a detour. The citizens were given short term relief when a Troop of
Sea Scouts
Sea Scouts are a part of the Scout movement, with a particular emphasis on boating and other water-based activities on the sea, rivers or lakes (canoeing, rafting, scuba, sailboarding). Sea Scouts can provide a chance to sail, cruise on boats, ...
(associated with the
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...
) used a donated
lifeboat
Lifeboat may refer to:
Rescue vessels
* Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape
* Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues
* Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen
...
to set up a temporary
ferry
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
service by stringing a rope across the river and pulling the boat back and forth, earning $85 by charging a five-cent fare for an estimated 5,000 passengers.West, James E "The Scout World" p. 25, in ''
Boys' Life
''Scout Life'' (formerly ''Boys' Life'') is the monthly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Its target readers are boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 18. The magazine‘s headquarters are in Irving, Texas.
''Scout Life'' is pu ...
'', October 1934. Accessed July 5, 2022. Later, the
United States Army Corps of Engineers
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came in and set up a temporary
pontoon bridge
A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses float (nautical), floats or shallow-draft (hull), draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maxi ...
. In the photographs taken at the time, the pontoon bridge appears to be very flimsy. In fact it was very stable, and one could drive a car across it.
Due to the surge of water during the flood, much debris was deposited in the Cohansey River, making navigation of the waterway dangerous. The city hired a hard-hat diver to help in the removal of the debris.