Delaware Breakwater

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Delaware Breakwater and Lewes Harbor
Lewes Inner Harbor.JPG
USA Delaware location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Nearest city Lewes, Delaware
Coordinates 38°47′52″N75°6′30″W / 38.79778°N 75.10833°W / 38.79778; -75.10833 Coordinates: 38°47′52″N75°6′30″W / 38.79778°N 75.10833°W / 38.79778; -75.10833
Built 1828
Architect William Strickland
Simon Bernard
NRHP reference # 76000586 [1]
Added to NRHP December 12, 1976

The Delaware Breakwater is a set of breakwaters east of Lewes, Delaware on Cape Henlopen that form Lewes Harbor. They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 12, 1976.

Breakwater (structure) Structure constructed on coasts as part of coastal management or to protect an anchorage

Breakwaters are structures constructed near the coasts as part of coastal management or to protect an anchorage from the effects of both weather and longshore drift.

Lewes, Delaware City in Delaware, United States

Lewes is an incorporated city on the Delaware Bay in eastern Sussex County, Delaware. According to the 2010 census, the population is 2,747. Along with neighboring Rehoboth Beach, Lewes is one of the principal cities of Delaware's rapidly growing Cape Region. The city lies within the Salisbury, Maryland–Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lewes proudly claims to be "The First Town in The First State."

Cape Henlopen

Cape Henlopen is the southern cape of the Delaware Bay along the Atlantic coast of the United States. It lies in the state of Delaware, near the town of Lewes. Off the coast on the bay side are two lighthouses, called the Harbor of Refuge Light and the Delaware Breakwater East End Light.

The original 1,700-foot (520 m) and 2,800-foot (850 m) breakwaters were built in 1828. [1] The breakwaters are now included in the National Harbor of Refuge and Delaware Breakwater Harbor Historic District.

National Harbor of Refuge and Delaware Breakwater Harbor Historic District

The National Harbor of Refuge and Delaware Breakwater Historic District encompasses a series of seacoast breakwaters behind Cape Henlopen, Delaware, built between 1828 and 1898 to establish a shipping haven on a coastline that lacked safe harbors. The Harbor of Refuge is at the mouth of the Delaware Bay estuary where it opens into the Atlantic Ocean, at Lewes.

The breakwaters were the first structure of their kind to be built in the Americas. [2]

See also

Delaware Breakwater East End Light

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