Seawall & Bulkhead Guide: Brigantine, New Jersey
Brigantine sits on Brigantine Island in Atlantic County, New Jersey, reachable from the mainland by a single road: the Justice Vincent S. Haneman Memorial Bridge, carrying Route 87 (Brigantine Boulevard). Wikipedia puts the city's total area at 10.86 square miles -- 6.52 land and 4.34 water, meaning close to forty percent of the city's footprint is water rather than land. That geography is not an abstraction for a bayside property owner here: it is the reason a bulkhead or seawall is a genuinely practical, ongoing concern rather than a niche one. Brigantine's history makes the stakes concrete rather than theoretical -- the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 destroyed the city's original 1924 bridge outright, forcing residents onto ferry service for 21 months until a replacement finally opened, and the current 1972 bridge remains the island's only road connection to this day. This page lays out the general distinction between a seawall and a bulkhead, what Brigantine's own water-heavy geography, its single-bridge access, and its real 1944 storm history tell a property owner (and what they do not), and where to go for New Jersey's real coastal-construction permitting requirements -- without inventing a permit fee, a contractor name, or an engineering spec for any Brigantine property.
Seawall or Bulkhead: Two Different Jobs, Not One
A seawall is built to absorb direct, open-water wave energy -- it stands between breaking surf and whatever sits behind it. A bulkhead is a narrower, calmer-water answer to a different problem: typically a vertical wall of timber, vinyl, steel sheet piling, or concrete, built to hold back soil and stabilize an edge along water that is not throwing breaking waves at it, such as a back-bay channel, marina basin, or lagoon.
On an island city where 4.34 of the total 10.86 square miles is water, that distinction matters in practice. Brigantine's ocean-facing beaches deal with direct surf and beachfront exposure. The bay-facing side of the island -- along the back channels and lagoons that make up so much of the city's water acreage -- deals with calmer water, tidal movement, and a different set of maintenance questions entirely. A property owner on the ocean side and a property owner on a bay or lagoon lot in the same city are not necessarily solving the same structural problem, even though both may describe what they have as a seawall or a bulkhead.
The Northern End: Wetlands, Wildlife, and Likely Tighter Rules
The Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge occupies the northern end of Brigantine Island, protecting endangered and protected species including American bald eagles, peregrine falcons, American black ducks, and piping plovers. A federal wildlife refuge bordering a residential island is not a detail that stays confined to refuge land -- wetlands, tidal marsh, and protected-species habitat adjacent to private property routinely bring additional environmental review into any construction or shoreline-stabilization project nearby, on top of the standard state and local permitting layers that apply everywhere else in the city.
This page does not know, and does not state, the specific boundary line between refuge-adjacent parcels and the rest of Brigantine, nor any specific additional permitting step, setback, or review timeline that applies to a bulkhead or seawall project near the refuge. A property owner on or near the island's northern end should treat proximity to the Forsythe refuge as a real reason to ask, up front, whether a shoreline project there faces additional federal or state environmental review beyond what a project elsewhere in the city would require -- not to assume the answer either way.
The 1944 Hurricane and a Single-Bridge Island
The Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 destroyed Brigantine's original 1924 bridge, forcing residents to rely on ferry service for 21 months until a permanent replacement was completed. The current bridge -- the Justice Vincent S. Haneman Memorial Bridge, named for a Brigantine mayor who later served as a New Jersey Supreme Court Justice -- opened in 1972 and remains the only road access to the island today via Route 87 (Brigantine Boulevard).
That history is a real, dated, documented storm-and-access event, not a generic hurricane warning. It does not tell an individual bayside or lagoon-front property owner whether their own bulkhead or seawall has ever been tested by a comparable storm, whether it has been inspected since it was built, or whether it meets a current permit standard. A single-road-access island is also a genuinely distinct practical fact worth knowing on its own terms: it shapes evacuation planning and storm response in a way that a mainland-connected shore town does not share. A property owner should treat 1944 as a real reason to ask current, specific questions about an individual lot's shoreline structure and about the city's current storm-evacuation planning -- not as evidence that any particular structure today is fine, or that any particular structure would fail.
CAFRA and Coastal Construction Permitting in New Jersey
New Jersey regulates coastal construction, including bulkhead and seawall work, under real state law -- most notably the Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA), administered by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). Work on or near the water on an island city like Brigantine -- whether repairing an existing bulkhead, replacing a seawall, or building a new one along a bay-facing or lagoon-facing lot -- is the kind of project that typically falls under this state permitting framework, in addition to whatever local building and zoning approval the City of Brigantine requires.
This page does not know, and does not state, a specific CAFRA application fee, a required setback, a specific engineering standard, or how long a review takes for a given Brigantine lot. None of those figures were confirmed in the research behind this page, and none is invented here. A property owner considering bulkhead or seawall work anywhere in the city -- and especially near the Forsythe refuge on the island's northern end -- should treat CAFRA and local permitting as a real, mandatory step to confirm directly, not a formality to assume away.
What This Page Does Not Confirm
This page does not state, and does not know, any Brigantine bulkhead or seawall ordinance number, the current cost of a bulkhead or CAFRA permit application, any additional permitting step specific to properties near the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, or any specific maintenance requirement tied to owning or repairing a bulkhead here. No such figures were confirmed in the research behind this page, and none is invented.
No current (2026) permanent population figure beyond the 2020 census count of 7,716, no current median home price, no current active-listing count, and no current Atlantic County or City of Brigantine property tax rate is stated here. No current New Jersey state sales tax rate is stated here either -- New Jersey has its own real state sales tax and a property-tax structure genuinely different from Delaware's no-sales-tax framing. No current FEMA flood-zone designation for any individual Brigantine parcel is stated on this page.
What a Property Owner Should Actually Ask
Given that 4.34 of Brigantine's 10.86 square miles is water and that the city carries a real, documented 1944 storm-and-bridge-loss history, a straightforward, practical question for any bayfront or lagoon-facing property here is whether an existing bulkhead or seawall is present, and if so, its age, material, and condition -- timber, vinyl, steel sheet piling, and concrete all age differently, and a structure built decades ago may not meet a current permit standard even if it was compliant when built. A second question worth asking, particularly for a property near the island's northern end and the Forsythe refuge, is whether any wetlands or protected-species review applies before shoreline work can begin.
Neither question can be answered in general terms on a page like this one. Both are property-by-property questions for the City of Brigantine's own building and zoning department, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and a licensed inspector or coastal engineer who can look at the actual lot.
Who Actually Regulates This in New Jersey
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), including its administration of the Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA), is the right first call for current coastal-permitting requirements for any bulkhead or seawall work in Brigantine. The City of Brigantine's own building and zoning department is the right local source for a permit application specific to a given parcel and current fees and inspection requirements. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, is the relevant federal contact for any project near the refuge's wetlands on the island's northern end, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the relevant federal authority for dredging, navigation, and federally authorized shore-protection work in the surrounding waters.
For anything specific to an actual lot -- whether an existing bulkhead or seawall needs repair or replacement, whether it meets current standards, or what a current permit costs -- the sound next step is a licensed New Jersey marine contractor or coastal engineer who can inspect the site directly, plus direct confirmation from the City of Brigantine and NJDEP on current rules. Confirm flood-zone status separately through FEMA's Flood Map Service Center. Nothing on this page is legal, engineering, or permitting advice.
Ready to talk to a local Brigantine agent?
Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Brigantine's location on Brigantine Island in Atlantic County, New Jersey, its 10.86-square-mile total area (6.52 land, 4.34 water), its 2020 census population of 7,716, its sole road access via the Justice Vincent S. Haneman Memorial Bridge (opened 1972, carrying Route 87/Brigantine Boulevard), the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944's destruction of the original 1924 bridge and the resulting 21-month ferry-only access gap, and the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge's presence on the island's northern end (protecting American bald eagles, peregrine falcons, American black ducks, and piping plovers) are sourced from Wikipedia's own Brigantine, New Jersey entry. This page does not state any Brigantine bulkhead or seawall ordinance number, current permit cost, any specific refuge-adjacent permitting requirement, or any maintenance requirement, none of which was confirmed in this research pass; no contractor name or specific engineering spec is stated or implied here. No current population beyond the 2020 census count of 7,716, median home price, active-listing count, property tax rate, New Jersey state sales tax rate, or FEMA flood-zone designation specific to Brigantine was confirmed via primary-source research this pass. Confirm current bulkhead and seawall permitting requirements directly with the City of Brigantine's building and zoning department and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), consult the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on any project near the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on federally authorized shore-protection or dredging work, check current flood-zone status through FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, and have any site-specific structural question answered by a licensed New Jersey marine contractor or coastal engineer before planning work on a Brigantine property. Nothing on this page is legal, insurance, engineering, or financial advice.