Tidal action made the channels to Jones Beach shift course weekly

Evidence

After Jones’s death, sou’easters tore away the necks, and the strand became an island itself. Between it and the mainland, the underwater reeds grew thicker. The tides tugged at the sand underneath the Great South Bay and the channels between the shoals became more and more crooked and treacherous, sometimes shifting course from week to week. People who tried to sail or motorboat to Jones Beach had to get out and push their boats off sand bars so frequently that one bay captain referred to his weekend journeys as his “walks to the Beach.” — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 715

Categorization

• QUESTION: This passage sets up the engineering challenge Moses will later overcome - worth chasing how Caro dramatizes the transformation of this treacherous coast into a parkway-and-bridge destination.