Long Island’s barrier beach is geologically unstable, constantly reshaped by currents and storms

Evidence

The very shape of the strand was different. That, the baymen explained to him, was because the ocean was constantly remolding it. Because the “set” of the Atlantic off Long Island was inexorably to the west, they said, sand and pebbles were continually washed up at its western end and the beach grew longer every year. But storms, particularly the howling “sou’easters,” also swept away part of the strand each winter, slashed new inlets through its dunes, closed old ones. The name “Fire Island” by which the easternmost section of the strand was known was actually a corruption of “Five Islands,” a name given to it in the eighteenth century when it had been divided into five parts by four inlets, all of which have since completely disappeared. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 713

Categorization

• CANDY: The etymology of Fire Island as a corruption of Five Islands, which had four now-vanished inlets, is a delightful conversational tidbit.
• XREF: Connects to the ADDENDUM essay on trees and infrastructure/landscape as worldbuilding - shifting shorelines are a classic worldbuilding element for coastal settings. — connects to: Glacial melt created Long Island’s barrier-beach south shore and bay — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 640; Long Island’s whale-like geography shapes its development arc — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 639

Broader Connections

• Long Island’s whale-like geography shapes its development arc #expands (0.75) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 639