Breakwaters
Lewes * Maritime History Trail
Two massive breakwaters shield Lewes Harbor from the punishing seas where Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet. They create an 800-acre anchorage that is nearly empty now, but in the early 1900s it was capable of sheltering 1,000 vessels from violent storms and hull-crushing ice.
Master Architect William F. Strickland designed the inner breakwater and was its chief engineer. Construction began in 1823, and laborers worked at the project - mostly by hand - for nearly 70 years. Measuring one mile long, it was the first public works project of the new U.S. government and the second-largest breakwater in the world. But even before it was completed, it was too small and its harbor too shallow for newer ships. Between 1897 and 1901 a new mile-and-a-half-long breakwater was built farther out.
Both breakwaters are piles of rubble and huge stone blocks weighting up to 13 tons each. Together, the breakwaters, lighthouses, harbor waters, and the old Coast Guard Station west of the ferry terminal constitute a National Historic District.
Marker can be reached from U.S. 9 north of Cape Henlopen Drive.
Courtesy hmdb.org
