Great Egg Harbor River
39°18′15″N74°38′59″W/ 39.30417°N 74.64972°W
| Great Egg Harbor River | |
|---|---|
 Shore of the Great Egg Harbor River betweenPenny Potand Weymouth Furnace | |
| Type | Scenic, Recreational |
| Designated | October 27, 1992 |
TheGreat Egg Harbor Riveris a 55.0-mile-long (88.5 km) river inSouth Jersey.[1]It is one of the major rivers that traverse the largely pristinePinelands,draining 308 square miles (800 km2) ofwetlandsinto the Atlantic Ocean atGreat Egg Harbor,from which it takes its name.
Great Egg Harbor (and thus the river) got its name fromDutchexplorerCornelius Jacobsen May.In 1614, Mey came upon the inlet to the Great Egg Harbor River. The meadows were so covered with shorebird and waterfowl eggs that he called it "Eyren Haven" (Egg Harbor). Today, the National Park Service considers it one of the top 10 places in North America forbirding.[2]
Description
[edit]
The Great Egg Harbor River rises in the suburbs southeast ofCamdennearBerlinand flows generally southeast, to the south of theAtlantic City Expressway,entering Great Egg Harbor approximately 5 miles (8 km) southwest ofAtlantic City.The lower 10 miles (16 km) of the river provide a navigableestuaryas far asMays Landing.TheTuckahoe Riverenters Great Egg Harbor just to the south of the mouth of the river.
Before the arrival of Europeans to the area in the 18th century, it was inhabited byLenape.During theAmerican Revolutionary War,its estuary shelteredprivateers.The presence of "bog iron"along the river provided material forcannonballsand led to the construction ofblast furnaces,as well asglassandbrickfactories, until the middle of the 19th century.
In 1992, the United States Congress designated 129 miles (208 km) of the river and its tributaries as theGreat Egg Harbor Scenic and Recreational River,as part of theNational Wild and Scenic Rivers System.[3]It is the longestcanoeingriver within the Pinelands. It can be paddled for 47 miles (76 km) from New Brooklyn, nearRoute 536,all the way toBeesley's Point.[4]The river is noted for itstea-colored "cedar water", the product of theironandtannin contentof the fallencedarleaves along much of its length.[2]It provides abundant habitat forwaterfowlin the region. The fish populations includestriped bassandalewife herring.
As of July 2015, 5,635.77 acres (22.8072 km2) of land along the river in Atlantic County is owned and administered by theNew Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlifeas the Great Egg Harbor River Wildlife Management Area.[5]
See also
[edit]
Tributaries
[edit]References
[edit]- ^U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data.The National MapArchived2012-03-29 at theWayback Machine,accessed April 1, 2011
- ^ab"Great Egg Harbor National Wild & Scenic & River".Nat'l Park Service.Retrieved20 January2012.
- ^"Great Egg Harbor Scenic and Recreational River",National Park Service.Accessed July 7, 2008.
- ^Edward Gertler (1992),Garden State Canoeing: A Paddler's Guide to New Jersey,Seneca Press, p. 127,ISBN0-9605908-5-4
- ^New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife,Wildlife Management Areas.Retrieved October 19, 2015.
External links
[edit]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
- Rivers of Atlantic County, New Jersey
- Rivers of Camden County, New Jersey
- Rivers of Gloucester County, New Jersey
- Rivers in the Pine Barrens (New Jersey)
- Rivers of New Jersey
- National Park Service areas in New Jersey
- National Park Service Wild and Scenic Rivers
- Protected areas of the Pine Barrens (New Jersey)
- Protected areas established in 1992
- 1992 establishments in New Jersey
- Wild and Scenic Rivers of the United States