Chapters

The saga, in installments.

Sixteen chapters planned. Two live, more each quarter, and one live epilogue that never closes. Read them in any order that pulls you — the current pair bookends the twentieth-century arc, from the resort that gave the Jersey Shore its name to the town of fast boats that outran the Coast Guard.

The chapters

Chapter 0 · Prologue · Deep time on the ridge and the spit

The Land Itself

A stranded sea floor, and a new one being built beside it.

Chapter 1 · Before record · The Navesink band of the Lenape

The Navesink

The land had names before it had a deed.

Chapter 2 · 1524–1609 · Europe arrives at the front door

First Sails

The golden shore and the fresh grave, in the same week.

Chapter 3 · 1651–1764 · The century between the deed and the lantern

Purchase and Settlement

What the deeds said was sold, and what was in practice kept.

Chapter 4 · 1764–1783 · New York built it. The British held it. New Jersey watched.

The Light and the War

The oldest operating lighthouse in America, and the town of refugees that grew at its feet.

Chapter 6 · 1828–1949 · America's optics-and-signals lab

The Twin Lights Century

Five American firsts, one hill, one hundred and twenty-one years.

Chapter 5 · 1839–1915 · The graveyard coast, and the service built on it

Wrecks and Rescue

A congressman told Congress that 158 ships had been lost. Congress believed him.

Chapter 7 · 1830–1900 · Writers, painters, steamboats, and the resort the famous built

The Painted Shore

One of the most beautiful combinations of land and water in America.

Chapter 8 · 1881–1963 · A resort, and the family who ran it

Highland Beach

The sea never beat this family. New Jersey did.

Chapter 10 · 1900–1920 · Incorporation, clam boats, and the working waterfront

A Town of Its Own

A working man's town at the foot of the resort hills.

Chapter 11 · 1920–1933 · Prohibition and the rum fleet

Rum Row

The bootleg capital of the East — and the town that built the boats.

Chapter 9 · 1874–1974 · A century of coastal defense

Guns on the Hook

The Army arrives, stays for a hundred years, and leaves the concrete behind.

Chapter 12 · 1945–2000 · The fleet, the fare, and the town that ran on both

Party Boats and Postwar

A working town that sold its labor by the seat and its identity by the sailing.

Chapter 13 · 1944–2012 · Storms, floods, and the price of living at sea level

The Sea Takes Back

The town pays tribute on the water's schedule.

Chapter 14 · 1962–present · From seized shore to shared shore

The Public Coast

The same eminent domain that ended Highland Beach created one of the most democratic coastlines in America.