Today, the Delaware Bay, located between New Jersey and Delaware, is one of the most important and busiest navigation channels in the United States, second only to the Mississippi river. Delaware Bay has a long history of importance to navigation going back to the 1500s; in 1609 the bay was claimed for the Dutch East India Company. The bay was important not only for trade and commerce, but also for defensive fortifications. In the American Revolutionary War, Marquis de Lafayette proposed the use of Pea Patch Island in the bay as a defensive fortification to protect the ports at Philadelphia and New Castle, Delaware.
But there were significant dangers to navigation in the Delaware Bay. During the winter months, there was a large quantity of ice, combined with the winds and tides that made navigation very treacherous if not impossible. Because of this, the bay was essentially shut down for two months out of the year. During these times, vessels were forced to seek other ports at a great inconvenience and expense. In the 1820's, the Senate Committee on Commerce estimated that these difficulties increased the premium of insurance from one-half to one and one-half percent, equating to a burden on Philadelphia alone whose imports exceeded $15 million of about $170,000 annually. It was as if Mother nature was taxing the cities around Delaware Bay with an oppressive and unfair tax. In addition, the dangerous conditions of Delaware Bay were causing a decline in commerce. For example, the tonnage in Philadelphia alone declined from over 124,000 tons in 1810 to under 79,000 tons in 1820. This was despite an increase in population of almost 20% during the same time period.
With these conditions in mind, Congress passed an act on May 7, 1822 to appropriate $22,700 for the erection of wooden piers near Cape Henlopen at the mouth of Delaware Bay. But, an initial survey reported that much more extensive works were needed such as a Breakwater or an Artificial Harbor. The Board of Engineers under Commodore Bainbridge were instructed to "prepare plans and estimates of piers sufficient to answer the purpose". The Board of Engineers confirmed that the wooden piers would not be sufficient and that additional appropriation would be needed" to construct either a Breakwater or Artificial Harbor as the earlier survey reported. Their report was delivered to President James Monroe in July of 1823. In December Monroe asked Congress in his State of the Union address to consider additional appropriation to improve navigation and for the protection of vessels in the Delaware Bay.
"The act of Congress of [1822-05-07], appropriated the sum of $22,700 for the purpose of erecting two piers as a shelter for vessels from ice near Cape Henlopen, Delaware Bay. To effect the object of the act the officers of the Board of Engineers, with Commodore Bainbridge, were directed to prepare plans and estimates of piers sufficient to answer the purpose intended by the act. It appears by their report, which accompanies the documents from the War Department, that the appropriation is not adequate to the purpose intended; and as the piers would be of great service both to the navigation of the Delaware Bay and the protection of vessels on the adjacent parts of the coast, I submit for the consideration of Congress whether additional and sufficient appropriations should not be made."In 1827, the Committee of Commerce delivered a full report on the need for an artificial harbor or break-water to the United Sates Senate. In the report, President Monroe's words from 1823 were repeated. Design for the Delaware Breakwater was begun in 1826 by William Strickland, and was the first of it's kind in the Western Hemisphere, and only the third in the whole world. The works initially included a 2,100 foot main breakwater and a 1,700 foot icebreaker pier. Each one was 160 feet wide at the base and 20 feet at the top. Work on the breakwater began in 1828, with a lighthouse added in 1828. The total cost was $2 million, and at the time, the breakwater was the largest in the world. Overtime, the works proved to be too small. During storms as many as 200 ships would seek refuge in the breakwaters. After a hurricane destroyed many ships who were either in the harbor or could not get to the harbor, both the icebreaker and main breakwater were expanded and connected. The Strickland lighthouse built in 1829 was replaced in 1885 with the present Delaware breakwater East End Light.
In 1828, President John Quincy Adams reported on the progress of a number of breakwater projects including the Delaware Breakwater.
"For 13 fortifications erecting on various points of our Atlantic coast, from Rhode Island to Louisiana, the aggregate expenditure of the year has fallen little short of $1,000,000. For the preparation of 5 additional reports of reconnoissances and surveys since the last session of Congress, for the civil construction upon 37 different public works commenced, 8 others for which specific appropriations have been made by acts of Congress, and 20 other incipient surveys under the authority given by the act of 1824-04-30, about $1,000,000 more has been drawn from the Treasury.
To these $2,000,000 is to be added the appropriation of $250,000 to commence the erection of a break-water near the mouth of the Delaware River, the subscriptions to the Delaware and Chesapeake, the Louisville and Portland, the Dismal Swamp, and the Chesapeake and Ohio canals, the large donations of lands to the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Alabama for objects of improvements within those States, and the sums appropriated for light-houses, buoys, and piers on the coast; and a full view will be taken of the munificence of the nation in the application of its resources to the improvement of its own condition."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29465
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29470
Committee on Commerce Report, January 5, 1827 U.S. Government Printing Office
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Harbor_of_Refuge_and_Delaware_Breakwater_Harbor_Historic_District
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_Bay
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