NJ shoreline has been retreating for 1000s of years - geologic vulnerabilities compared to rest of NE.
"The New Jersey Atlantic Ocean coastline is roughly 130 miles in length and can be classified into three different shoreline types depending on the purpose of the classification scheme (Figure 1). The New Jersey upland along the coast is composed of gravel, sand and silt deposits whose geological origins are derived from both marine and non-marine sedimentary episodes. None of the sediments exposed at the surface in Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic or Cape May Counties are cemented to form bedrock like that found along the New England coast. Since the geologic layers are not lithified, they erode easily under marine processes like wave action or tidal currents. These sediments are the source of all modern New Jersey beaches by erosion or by the reworking of other deposits formed from these older sediments prior to the present sea level rise.
The rise in global sea level has been transpiring for the past 20,000 years at a variable rate, following the melting of the last great ice sheet covering northern North America. The local change has been in the range of 350 feet to 400 feet vertically, which has produced a long-term westward migration of the shoreline. The "New Jersey" shoreline lay at the edge of the continental shelf 20,000 years ago, 80 to 90 miles to the east of the present coast. As the ice sheets melted and retreated into Canada, the ocean marched across the relatively flat continental shelf constantly changing the position and configuration of the New Jersey shoreline. A review of property records from the 17th Century in Monmouth County has demonstrated up to 2,000 feet of shoreline retreat since about 1650."
