The Inlet, which separates Assateague from Ocean City, did not exist prior to August 23, 1933. On that day a hurricane created a path from the Sinepuxent Bay to the ocean between what was then S. 4th and S. 5th streets. At first only 50 feet wide, it continued to widen and become deeper the following week.
Ocean City quickly realized what a gift nature had provided and immediately made plans to make the Inlet permanent. Congressman Alan Goldsborough and Senator Millard Tydings presented the project to federal authorities so forcibly that three weeks after the storm President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill approving the measure. Plans for retaining walls and the construction of stone jetties extending 1800 feet into the ocean were began under supervision of the Army Corps of Engineers. The photo shows construction of the north jetty in the spring of 1934.
The Inlet was and continues to be one of Ocean City’s greatest blessings.
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