A Coastal Attack the Army Couldn’t Stop

Soldiers once guarded this shoreline against sea-borne attack, but coastal erosion proved too powerful to stop. The wearing away of these bluffs and beaches by ocean waves has been steadily moving the coastline inland here since sea levels began rising after the last ice age. Human activities, such as mining sand and constructing dams on the coastal rivers, also speed up erosion by preventing new sand from replenishing these beaches.

California · United States