New Jersey History and Sites

Great Bay Boulevard, nicknamed Seven Bridges Road, is a narrow two-lane road originally designed to be causeway connecting Tuckerton to Atlantic City. However, the road was never fully completed. Only five of the seven bridges were ever built for the causeway. Today, the causeway has a dead-end at the conclusion of the Little Egg Harbor Inlet, allowing visitors to get up close into the marsh land of the Great Bay. Yet they aren’t able to reach Atlantic City by car, and probably never will be. Why? What happened to the road?

In the late 1920s, a project was formed to create a faster route to Atlantic City to Tuckerton. Tuckerton was going to handle building the five bridges connecting Tuckerton’s Route 9 to the tip of the Little Egg Harbor Inlet, and Atlantic County was going to build the remaining route connecting Little Beach, an area across the Little Egg Harbor Inlet, to Atlantic City through Brigantine. Tuckerton’s bridges proved difficult, taking over ten years to complete the five bridges and the connecting route.

After of a decade of work on the Tuckerton side, Atlantic County still had made no progress on their portion of route. In hopes of getting the Atlantic City route from Tuckerton completed, the project was transferred from the responsibility of Atlantic County to the state of New Jersey. Unfortunately, the state still made no progress with the project. Some people claim that the rest of route was never built because the water was too deep and far for two additional bridges. Others people claim the Great Depression caused the state to not have the financial resources to complete the bridge. Regardless what the reason for the original delay, by the 1960s, new environmental laws and regulations were put into place that prevented the completion of the original plans for the connection.

Now, the road is a long of stretch that wanders through the marsh, but is one of the most unique natural places along the Jersey shore. Driving away from Tuckerton, the first three bridges are more modern, two-lane structures that allow for heavier traffic to access some of the facilities along the route. As you trek further down the road though, the road narrows begin to show its age. The last two bridges are wooden, one lane structures that are controlled by traffic lights, a very rare site in New Jersey. Beyond being remote, and possessing relatively untouched beauty, many locals and visitors head to stops along the road for a variety of activities. Many people drive down to fish, kayak, walk, birdwatch, and more. At the end of the road, visitors can walk through a small pathway, cut through brush, to find a natural and small beach formation.

Though relatively untouched, there are a few man-made sites to see. First, directly along the route, you can find a couple of marinas. The marinas are in an ideal location along the route because they have direct and easy access to the Great Bay. Once you reach the end of the road, you may notice a white building with a red roof. This building is home to Rutgers Marine Field Station, which is an operation research lab for tracking fish and crab larvae. A remote monitoring station for Rutgers University can also be found on the south side of the road before you reach the main building. Like many visitors to Great Bay, Rutgers is fascinated by the marine life along Great Bay Boulevard. There is also a noticeable abandoned fishery in the distance!

While the road could seem like a failure for it’s incompletion, many visitors still find the beauty and use for the dead-end route.

Resources

“WMA of the Month – Great Bay Boulevard.” NJ Fish & Wildlife. Department of Environmental Protection, 9/10/2023. https://dep.nj.gov/njfw/news-2023-08-10-wma-of-the-month-great-bay-boulevard/

Joe Martucci. “What if the road from Tuckerton to Atlantic City was built?” The Press of Atlantic City. May 1, 2023. https://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/what-if-the-road-from-tuckerton-to-little-egg-harbor-to-brigantine-to-atlantic-city-was-built/article_856ab33e-df04-11ed-8919-274bbb7c823e.html

Connor Reddington. “Go here: Tuckerton Seaport and Great Bay Wildlife Management Area.” NJ INDY. August 5, 2022 https://njindy.com/2022/08/05/go-here-tuckerton-seaport-and-great-bay-wildlife-management-area/