Montauk Beach Is Back in Shape for Tourist Season

This past Sunday, we drove to Montauk to see what the new beach looks like. Until eight years ago, the beach was a stunning carpet of white sand. But then it all washed out and the authorities had to build this emergency wall of sandbags to shore up the downtown beachfront motels.

Now, suddenly, the beach is back in all its glory. The Army Corps of Engineers, working for only 30 days, dumped a half-million cubic yards of sand onto it, one and done.

We parked and walked out onto the beach and into the sunshine. We stood there watching the waves thunder down onto all this glorious new sand. Other folks were also out there, strolling along, beaming with pride.

Among them was an elderly couple about our age. And the husband looked familiar. Maybe he was one of the surfers I knew way back when.

“This is so wonderful,” I said. “The beach is like it was in the 1960s. Amazing.”

“Isn’t it something?” the wife said.

“We were here two weeks ago,” the husband said. “It was just a mess. No beach. So disappointing. Now it turns out it was just a big spring cleanup. They’ve just gotten it ready for the tourists. They did some job.”

“We’ll be back again in the summer,” the wife said.  And so they strolled off.

Well, whatever.