Was there ever a 'barrier beach' across the mouth of Braddock Bay? Answer: No

$10 million dollars says that there was.  Tell that to the Rochester, Charlotte & Manitou Railroad Line [Manitou Trolley] which built a 2,000 ft. trestle across Braddock Bay in 1895.

That's what the Army Corps presented in the form of scientist, Dennis Wilcox of SUNY Brockport, who testified to the Town of Greece . . . and that's the local person presenting 'research' upon which the federal 'restoration' funding has been directed [through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative] to build a cement/rock barrier across part of the mouth of Braddock Bay NY on L. Ontario.

How is the assumption of a 'barrier beach' possible? This map was published in 1894. . . . . 

Have these people ever SEEN the bay??

In 2015 the Army Corps Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Mississippi did various numeric simulations of the sediment deposit and other factors stating this: "A 5,000 ft (1,524 m) long sandbar that spanned the entire length of bay entrance isolated the bay from the lake until 1902. The sandbar stretched the full length of entrance until the early 1900s, but gradually eroded and moved into the bay over ensuing decades. There used to be a railroad located on the sandbar, and a trolley line ran across the bay along this barrier bar, which was abandoned later. By the 1950s, most of the barrier bar had eroded and disappeared, and Braddock Bay became exposed to direct wave action.  The bay had also two natural spits at the northwestern and southeastern openings of the bay, and both of these also have gradually eroded away and shifted landward into the bay. With increasing residential developments along the beaches during the second half of 20th century, the armoring of southeastern and northern spits was sought by local residents. These armorings have slowed down erosion due to continuous nearshore breaking waves and strong currents emanating from Lake Ontario." -- http://www.ADA614136.pdf  WHAT!!!  NOT TRUE!!

Why is it important?  Because the 'coastal restoration' funding and deliberate manipulation of a natural coastline across the mouth of Braddock Bay was based on politically [financially] motivated statement.  A LOT of money is being poured into coastal restoration.  By damaging the natural bay mouth and the bay's west spit natural sandbar coastline and here in the NYS Braddock Bay Wildlife Management Area, the future health of the bay may be compromised.  Natural sediment deposit, wave action and other hydrologic features are being tweaked --- and I, for one, cannot really fathom the reason.  

A 1894 survey of the shoreline showed the wide open bay mouth with trestle crossing it:

To add more to the debate, papers given to me in 1983 by Mrs. Walter Stone, owner of the Braddock Point Lighthouse, indicated that schooners coming from Sacket's Harbor to Fort Niagara were provisioned at Braddock Bay.  The shallow-draft vessels were not blocked from entering the bay.  In subsequent years, sandbars forming in patterns along the west spit [west to east] came up against the 1890s Manitou Trolley foundation trestle, remnants of which still remain across the bay's mouth effecively serving as an underwater barrier.  I am watching the construction of revetment starting from the eastern shoreline of the bay.  I hope I am wrong.  I hope I am not just a nit-picker nimby.  But I don't think so.