Bridgeport taps Army Corps to protect Pleasure Beach

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch issued a statement recently praising the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its $2 million investment in repairing breakwaters off the shoreline of Pleasure Beach, a 71-acre barrier island on the Long Island Sound that the corps expanded with a massive dredge project in the 1940s. The work began in late winter and continues.

Work is in progress on breakwaters at Bridgeport’s Pleasure Beach.

Pleasure Beach reopened June 28 last year and quickly attracted 25,000 visitors who used the city”™s free water taxi for access, according to Finch’s office. The 19th-century beach was popular through much of the 20th century but had fallen into decline when a 1996 fire to its lone bridge rendered it unusable for the public.

The city released a 48-second video of the work in progress. It shows a pair of large excavators lifting boulders onto a semi-submerged breakwater.

No date for completion of the work was given.

“Last year, we reopened Pleasure Beach to the public after decades of closure and neglect,” Finch said in a statement. “Now, we”™re seeing further investment that will help safeguard the barrier island and the thousands of visitors who enjoy this newly reopened gem in our city.”

Historically, the most significant investment made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Pleasure Beach was in 1948 when the barrier island was enlarged by approximately 2 million cubic yards. It was done by pumping sand and gravel from the harbor on its western and southern sides.