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1952 Map of Ship Bottom

Name: 1952 Topographic Map of Ship Bottom
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1954
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1954

About this map

Long Beach barrier island serves as the focal point of this coastal survey, detailing the early 1950s development of shore communities from Ship Bottom and Surf City north to Harvey Cedars and High Point. This era shows the island before the modern bridge infrastructure fully transformed the coastline, with Long Beach Blvd connecting the narrow residential grids. Across the bay, the landscape remains largely undeveloped marshland and salt meadow, dominated by the Manahawkin Hunting and Fishing Grounds and a network of tidal waters like the Gunning River and Big Flat Creek.

A notable technical landmark of the era is the Transatlantic Radio Receiver located on the mainland near the salt marshes. The map also records numerous sedges and islands that have likely shifted since the early post-war period, including Lovelady Island, Sandy Island, and Sloop Sedge. On the mainland, small crossroads like Beach View and the edge of Barnegat stand at the transition between the coastal plains and the bay.