Great Egg Harbor Bay

The Great Egg Harbor River is a 55.0-mile-long (88.5 km) river in South Jersey. It is one of the major rivers that traverse the largely pristine Pinelands, draining 308 square miles (800 km2) of wetlands into the Atlantic Ocean at Great Egg Harbor, from which it takes its name. Great Egg Harbor (and thus the river) got its name from Dutch explorer Cornelius 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 for birding.

The Capture of La Croyable, or the Action of July 7, 1798, occurred when the French privateer schooner La Croyable was taken by the American sloop-of-war USS Delaware on 7 July 1798 during the Quasi-War. The engagement resulted in the first capture of any ship by the United States Navy, which had been formed just months before the action.Originally a merchant ship called Hamburgh Packet, USS Delaware was purchased by the United States Navy on May 5, 1798. With a complement of 180 men and twenty mounted long guns – sixteen 9-pounders (4.1 kilograms) and four 6-pounders (2.7 kilograms), she was given to Captain Stephen Decatur, Sr. to command. Delaware set sail from Delaware Bay on July 6 with instructions to join USS United States and USS Ganges and patrol the section of the Atlantic Coast between Long Island and Cape Henry.On July 7 the day after her first sail, USS Delaware happened upon the American merchant vessel Alexander Hamilton, which had been carrying wine and brandy from New York City to Baltimore when she was stopped by a French privateer who ransacked her. She was reduced to limping across the Great Egg Harbor Bay. When Captain Decatur heard these reports from Alexander Hamilton's crew, he began scouting the bay for a potentially culpable French vessel.An attack by a French privateer on an American merchantman was not unheard of at the time. Tensions between the United States and France had been rising in the months. The United States Congress had instructed all American warships in the newly-formed United States Navy to "capture any French vessel found near the coast preying upon American commerce." Congress had also commissioned one thousand letters of marque to combat against the French hostilities of the day. Captain Decatur, who had distinguished himself as a privateer during the American Revolutionary War, was now looking to make the most of the opportunity to command Delaware.In the midst of her search for the French privateers, Delaware spotted four sails on the horizon. Under Decatur's orders, the sloop's crew had her pretend to be a merchant vessel. The act was convincing enough to draw the attention and pursuit of the French privateer schooner La Croyable. It was not long before the captain of the French vessel discovered that Delaware was a warship and tried to reverse course. After a lengthy chase, La Croyable found herself pinned against the shore of Great Egg Harbor Bay. She surrendered after only a few cannon shots.On July 8 Delaware made her way back up the Delaware River with her prize and docked at Fort Mifflin. After executing the US Navy's first victory of the Quasi-War, Decatur became a hero. He boasted of his catch to several people, including Captain John Barry of USS United States. La Croyable was deemed a lawful capture by the U.S. government and renamed USS Retaliation. She was given to the command of Lieutenant William Bainbridge. Bainbridge would join a fleet of American ships in the Caribbean on October 15. Later in November, however, the French frigates Volontaire and Insurgente attacked USS Retaliation, capturing her. This was the only American naval vessel to be captured during the entire Quasi-War, which was later recaptured by the U.S. Navy.

The B.L. England Generating Station, also called Beesley's Point Generating Station, was a power plant in Upper Township, Cape May County, New Jersey, United States, on the Great Egg Harbor River. The facility provided approximately 450 megawatts of generating capacity from three generating units. Two units burned coal (and up to 7 percent Tire-derived fuel) and the third unit burned bunker C oil. Its large smokestack, altered to resemble a lighthouse, contained a sulfur dioxide scrubber which removed the SO2 from the flue gas and converted it into gypsum, which can be sold. The scrubber allowed the two coal units to use less expensive high sulfur coal from West Virginia. The plant is visible from the Great Egg Harbor Bridge on the Garden State Parkway, and many confuse it with the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station and its hyperboloid cooling tower, which recirculates hot water to avoid discharging into Great Egg Harbor Bay and cause thermal pollution. The plant was decommissioned on May 1, 2019 and has been slowly being demolished, with major demolition starting on April 21, 2023.

The Beesley's Point Bridge was a bridge in New Jersey, United States, that was built privately by the Ocean City Automobile Club in 1927. Completed in 1928, control of the bridge was acquired by the Beesley's Point Bridge Company. It was a toll bridge from its opening. Prior to its closing, it was best known for carrying U.S. Route 9 (US 9) over the Great Egg Harbor Bay, connecting Upper Township, in Cape May County to Somers Point in Atlantic County. The bridge concurrently carried the Garden State Parkway over the Great Egg Harbor Bay from the Parkway's opening in 1954 until a separate bridge over the bay for the Parkway, the Great Egg Harbor Bridge, opened in 1955.Through the decades, the Beesley's Point Bridge Company became unable to fund repairs on the aging bridge. In 1997, the bridge company, in conjunction with private outside investors, secured a $1 million loan from the New Jersey Department of Transportation to fund the necessary improvements in exchange for a promise that they would continue to keep the bridge open until 2016.In 2004, the owners of the bridge broke that promise realizing that the repairs would cost many times more than the original estimate. As a result, the Company agreed to close the bridge and it closed to traffic on June 18, 2004. US 9 was subsequently rerouted over the Great Egg Harbor Bridge.

The Great Egg Harbor Bridge is a series of four bridges along the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey, with tolls collected in the southbound direction. It crosses the Great Egg Harbor Bay, connecting Upper Township, in Cape May County to Somers Point in Atlantic County. The bridge crosses over a section of Egg Harbor Township, and Drag Island. It carries a portion of U.S. Route 9.

Beesley's Point is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Upper Township, in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Beesley's Point is on Peck Bay across from Ocean City. Beesley's Point is home to the Beesley's Point Generating Station and one end of the now-closed Beesley's Point Bridge. It was first listed as a CDP in the 2020 census with a population of 816. A post office was established in 1851, with Joseph Chatten as the first postmaster.

Thomas Beesley Sr. House is located in the Beesley's Point section of Upper Township, Cape May County, New Jersey, United States. The house was built in 1816 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 17, 1992.

Marmora is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Upper Township, in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Ocean City Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its postal ZIP Code is 08223. Its 1990 population was approximately 4,420 persons. A post office was established in 1890, with James Corson as the first postmaster.

Somers Point is a city situated on the Jersey Shore that is the oldest settlement in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was settled by Europeans in 1693 and was incorporated as a borough in 1886. Somers Point was incorporated as a city in 1902. The city is located in eastern Atlantic County, southwest of Atlantic City, in the South Jersey region of the state. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 10,469, a decrease of 326 (−3.0%) from the 2010 census count of 10,795, which in turn reflected a decline of 819 (−7.1%) from the 11,614 counted in the 2000 census. Somers Point and all of Atlantic County lie within the Atlantic City-Hammonton metropolitan statistical area, which in turn constitutes part of the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden combined statistical area.

Capt. John Jeffries Burial Marker is a historic burial monument in the cemetery at Scullville Bible Church in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, along County Route 559 near Somers Point. It was built in 1887 and added to both the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Capt. Jeffries (1829-1887) is known for his association with the ship Twenty One Friends, which, following an incident at sea, floated without crew across the Atlantic Ocean for two years before being claimed and returned to service.

English Creek is a 6.0-mile-long (9.7 km) tributary of the Great Egg Harbor River in southeast New Jersey in the United States.

Ocean City is a city in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the principal city of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Cape May County, and is part of the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD combined statistical area, also known as the Delaware Valley or Philadelphia metropolitan area. It is part of the South Jersey region of the state. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 11,229, a decrease of 472 (−4.0%) from the 2010 census count of 11,701, which in turn reflected a decline of 3,677 (−23.9%) from the 15,378 counted in the 2000 census. In summer months, with an influx of tourists and second homeowners, there are estimated to be 115,000 to 130,000 within the city's borders.Ocean City originated as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on May 3, 1884, from portions of Upper Township, based on results from a referendum on April 30, 1884, and was reincorporated as a borough on March 31, 1890. Ocean City was incorporated as a city, its current government form, on March 25, 1897. The city is named for its location on the Atlantic Ocean.Known as a family-oriented seaside resort, Ocean City has not allowed the sale of alcoholic beverages within its limits since its founding in 1879, offering miles of guarded beaches, a boardwalk that stretches for 2.5 miles (4.0 km), and a downtown shopping and dining district.Travel Channel rated Ocean City as the Best Family Beach of 2005. It was ranked the third-best beach in New Jersey in the 2008 Top 10 Beaches Contest sponsored by the New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium. In the 2009 Top 10 Beaches Contest sponsored by NJ.com, Ocean City ranked first.