Brigantine's $14M Beach Is Washing Away — And the Next Sand Isn't Due Until 2029

On September 26, 2026, the ocean tore a newly installed access ramp off the promenade in Brigantine, New Jersey, and left it about thirty blocks down the beach. The city estimates hundreds of feet of beach washed away, three years after a $14 million federal sand project. It was not a hurricane: the peak tide at Atlantic City ranked only tenth on record, a foot below Sandy. But twelve high tides in nine days reached flood stage, and the waves offshore stayed above ten feet for about 110 hours. This is how a slow nor'easter takes a beach apart one tide at a time, why the north end of this island is where it happens, and why a town that got its sand nineteen days earlier kept its dune. In this video: • Brigantine: a barrier island with one bridge, a rock wall at its north end and more than three miles of wild beach beyond it • A week of east wind: the first flood tide on September 22, four days before the peak • The low that stalled near New Jersey and Long Island from September 26 to 28, under a full moon • The Barnegat wave buoy: 10 feet or more for about 110 hours, 18 feet at 4 a.m. Saturday • The Atlantic City tide gauge: 7.86 feet at the peak, 12 flood tides in nine days, 8 in a row • Flooded streets from Atlantic City to Sea Bright, where 67 people were rescued • Saturday in Brigantine: the pumps held, the promenade did not • Why the north end erodes: the sand drifts south, and the wall reflects the waves • The feeder beach: seven sand projects since 1997, about 4.7 million cubic yards • Where the sand goes: a dune field more than 800 feet wide at the south end • How a sand cliff forms at the dune line • Ocean City: 1.6 million cubic yards finished September 7, up to 210 feet eroded, dune never breached • The other hot spots: Atlantic City, North Wildwood, Bay Head, Sea Bright • 1962, 1992 and the year with zero federal sand money • An emergency sand request, a longer seawall, and an El Niño winter ⏱ CHAPTERS 0:00 The Ramp 3:22 The Low That Stayed 5:10 Twelve Tides 8:46 Why the North End 12:41 Sand Cliffs 15:22 The Other Hot Spots 19:10 The Winter Ahead