Orchard Beach is bigger, better and reborn, thanks to a $13 million “renourishment” project completed last week.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dumped 268,000 cubic yards of pristine sand on the beach this winter to expand the shore and ease overcrowding.
Every wave that breaks on the mile-long beach pulls sand out to sea and shrinks the sunbathed stretch known as the “Bronx Riviera,” where 1.4 million people visited last year.
Created by master builder and then-Parks Commissioner Robert Moses in the 1930s, the golden expanse in Pelham Bay Park was last renourished in 1964.
Since last fall, when the project began, the beach has clearly grown – it is 125 feet wider. [NY Daily News]