Saturday, June 7, 2008

Plum Island, from above




I snatched this off the Internet; I hope I'm not in trouble!

I believe the black arrow indicates where the mouth of the Merrimack River used to be, in the 1800s. This is where everyone (?) is anticipating a major breach, someday.

I live over on that non-oceanside lump, at the right, almost at the tip. That water in between is called The Basin. All of that lovely beach at the end there (which is north) belongs to Newburyport.

In some kind of bizarre long-ago scheme, the northern end of the island is bisected by the Newburyport city line. I don't know when this photo was taken, but you can see the inlet (just above the arrow) caused by the erosion has already started to form.

It's pretty, though, isn't it?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The black arrow is pointing to where a house was for sale. But yes, it also indicates where many anticipate a future breach.

In the early 1800's neither the point (new point) nor the basin existed - old point had a little different shape.

Gillian Swart said...

Yes, well, you can see where the lighthouse used to be out here on the old point.

And as for the breach right there - someone told me they heard about it when they were in the 8th grade. Not sure how old this person is now, but he's on the City Council!