200 Plus
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•November 6, 2024
NJ Legislature Comes to the Rescue
The battle to save Barnegat Lighthouse from falling victim to the encroaching tide shifted from Washington to Trenton when the federal government announced it wasn’t going to spend the money needed…
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•October 30, 2024
A Glimmer of Hope for the Lighthouse
The year 1924 ended with the hope of saving Barnegat Lighthouse for future generations at an all-time low. The U.S. government had announced in early December that it would not spend the $400,000…
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•October 23, 2024
Fight for Lighthouse Continues
The story of how Barnegat Lighthouse is still standing at the north end of Long Beach Island is one of ups and downs and a long list of heroes. None deserves more credit for saving old Barney then…
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•October 16, 2024
Not All Patriots Were Famous
Two hundred fifty years ago, events were heading toward a crisis between England and the 13 North American colonies. In December 1773, Boston had held its famous tea party, followed a month later at…
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•October 9, 2024
Airships Hampered by Lack of Helium
In November 1924, the giant hangar at Lakehurst, N.J. held two of the world’s largest airships. They had just completed record-breaking flights, but as the month began neither was able to fly.
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•October 2, 2024
200 Plus – From the Beginning
Recently, as I was writing about floating nuclear power plants off Long Beach Island, I was asked why this weekly column is called 200 Plus. This week would be a good time to answer the question –…
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•September 11, 2024
Attention Shifts to the ‘ZR-3’
October 1924 is considered as one of the high points in the history of lighter-than-air aviation in the U.S. The USS Shenandoah was on the West Coast after a triumphant record-breaking flight from…
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•September 4, 2024
‘USS Shenandoah’ Begins Historic Trip
October 1924 was set to be a record-breaking month in the history of aviation, and Lakehurst, N.J. was to be at the center of the activity.
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•August 28, 2024
Airship Passes Important Test
One hundred years ago many experts believed the future of aviation would be with giant lighter-than-airships and the New Jersey Pine Barrens would become the center of activity.
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•August 21, 2024
US Enthralled With the ‘Shenandoah’
Memorial Day weekend 1924 saw the repaired USS Shenandoah make its first public appearance since it had been torn from its mooring mast during a violent nor’easter in January. Witnessed by over…
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•August 14, 2024
Lakehurst Takes the Spotlight
Most stories about airships end in disaster, but the year 1924 was the exception as it became one of pride and the hope for a brighter future.
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•August 7, 2024
Shipwrecks Meet Explosive Conclusion
The normal story for wrecks along the Jersey Shore involves a storm causing a ship to be beached, followed by its destruction at the hands of pounding waves. The story of the 1890 collision of two…
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•July 31, 2024
‘Graveyard’ Claims Third Victim
For many years the ocean just east of Barnegat Light has been called the graveyard of the Atlantic. As 1890 drew to a close, at a site just east of the lighthouse, the masts of two ships that had…
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•July 24, 2024
Dealing With the Gruesome Aftermath
In the age before wireless communication, when two ships collided near Barnegat Lighthouse, nothing was known of the incident until the next morning, when passing ships saw survivors clinging to the…
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•July 17, 2024
Who’s Telling the Truth?
On the night of Oct. 30, 1890, two ships collided just east of Barnegat Lighthouse. The four-masted schooner Cornelius Hargraves, loaded with coal, had left Philadelphia when it rammed the…
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•July 10, 2024
Desperate Struggle for Survival
On the night of Oct. 30, 1890, two vessels collided within sight of Barnegat Lighthouse. The first group of survivors was rescued the next morning from one of the ship’s rigging, as both sank in only…
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•July 4, 2024
Disastrous Collision Off Barnegat Light
When you think of shipwrecks off the Jersey coast, you almost always picture a lone vessel battling the seas on a dark and stormy night. But one of the most controversial ones occurred in 1890, and…
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•June 26, 2024
Hope for Lighthouse Appears Lost
In the long history of Barnegat Lighthouse, the year 1924 has to mark one of its low points.
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•June 19, 2024
Dead Fish and a Movie Kill Reactors
This series began trying to answer the question of why today there are no floating nuclear reactors off Long Beach Island and no giant cooling tower in Forked River. Throughout the early 1970s, fish…
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•June 12, 2024
Atlantic County Voters Say No
The battle over whether Southern Ocean County would become a center for the nation’s nuclear power industry and a test site for the new technology of floating power plants took a turn during the…
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•June 7, 2024
Unions, Birders and Politics Get Involved
The events of 1974 in many ways explain why today Ocean County is not a center for the nation’s nuclear power industry.
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•May 29, 2024
EPA Questions Oyster Creek Approval
At the time few people realized that a fish kill in August 1973 at the Oyster Creek nuclear reactor on Route 9 in Lacey Township would trigger a series of events that would affect the nation’s energy…
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•May 22, 2024
Concerns Grow About Nuclear Power
The saying that small events can have large consequences might use a fish kill caused by the Oyster Creek nuclear reactor in August 1973 as an example. Just days later, the local Lacey Township…
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•May 15, 2024
Fish Kill Stinks Up Nuclear Plan
As the summer of 1973 began, Ocean County, N.J. was on the verge of becoming one of the nation’s focal points for the production of electricity using nuclear power. At the time, four floating…
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•May 8, 2024
Dead Fish, Shipworms Spell Trouble
One of the interesting benefits of studying history is it can trigger lively “what if” debates, such as what if Lincoln hadn’t gone to Ford’s Theatre or Truman had not ordered the A-bomb to be…
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•May 1, 2024
Power Study Has a Rough Start
When contracts were signed in September 1972 to locate the nation’s first floating nuclear power station off the southern tip of Long Beach Island, some critics argued that more studies were needed…
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•April 24, 2024
Ocean County Takes a Stand
In September 1972, an event took place on a yacht off the southern end of Long Beach Island that would affect the entire nation.
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•April 17, 2024
First Permit Granted for Nuclear Reactors
In April 1972 the New Jersey Assembly had passed a resolution asking the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to delay issuing permits to build two floating nuclear reactors off Holgate and…
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•April 10, 2024
Ocean-Based Nuclear Project Moves Ahead
By the spring of 1972 there had been several news articles announcing plans to build a series of floating nuclear reactors just off the coast of New Jersey. As the project proceeded, there was a need…
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•April 3, 2024
Nuclear Plants Off Long Beach Island?
As you stand on any Long Beach Island beach watching the sunrise, your view has changed little since the founding of the country. If you turn around, however, nothing is the same.
