Poverty Beach or Sewell Point is a

barrier spit A spit or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform off coasts or lake shores. It develops in places where re-entrance occurs, such as at a cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drift by longshore currents. The drift occurs due ...

, approximately 2.5 miles (4 km) in length entirely within the City of Cape May, along the Atlantic Ocean coast of eastern New Jersey in the United States. It is the southernmost barrier island in New Jersey.

Description

Geologically, Poverty Beach is a sand spit or barrier spit, extending northeast from the mainland at

Cape Island Cape May consists of a peninsula and barrier island system in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is roughly coterminous with Cape May County and runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating Delaware Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The so ...

to Sewell Point at

Cold Spring Inlet Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

. Often the entire spit is referred to as Sewell Point. On its northwestern side, the peninsula encloses manmade Cape May Harbor. Poverty Beach was described in 1834 as, An 1878 description stated, Poverty Beach was widened by

land reclamation Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

involving the filling of Cape Island Sound and the creation of Cape May Harbor from salt marsh in the early 20th century.Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army - New Jersey, Cape May Quadrangle -Grid Zone A 1925 Poverty Beach has been part of Cape May since 1848. Much of Poverty Beach is taken up by the

United States Coast Guard Training Center Cape May United States Coast Guard Training Center Cape May (TRACENCM) is the home of the Coast Guard enlisted corps and is the Coast Guard's only enlisted accession point and recruit training center, located on 1 Munro Avenue, Cape May, New Jersey. His ...

References

External links

Training Center Cape May
official website {{authority control Barrier islands of New Jersey Landforms of Cape May County, New Jersey Cape May, New Jersey Peninsulas of New Jersey Spits of the United States Beaches of Cape May County, New Jersey Beaches of New Jersey