Georgica Pond is a coastal
lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...
on the west border of
East Hampton Village and
Wainscott, New York, and was the site of a
Summer White House of
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
in 1998 and 1999.
The lagoon is separated by a sandbar and is managed by the East Hampton Trustees who monitor a cycle of draining the lagoon and replenishing it with
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
water. The Lagoon consists of 6 finger like coves shooting out from the main body of water, Georgica Cove, Eel Creek, Goose Creek, Talmage Creek, Seabury Creek, and Jones Creek.
Celebrities on its banks include
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...
,
Ronald Perelman
Ronald Owen Perelman (; born January 1, 1943) is an American banker, businessman, investor, and philanthropist. MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, his company, has invested in companies with interests in groceries, cigars, licorice, makeup, ca ...
, developer
Harry Macklowe and formerly
Martha Stewart
Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail business woman, writer, and television personality. As the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, focusing on home and hospitality, she gained success through a variety ...
and
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer. In 1968, he launched the company that later became Calvin Klein. In addition to clothing, he has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewellery. ...
.
Bill and
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
stayed at the Spielberg home during the summer vacations in 1998 and 1999. Rumors circulated in 1998 that the
Secret Service
A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For i ...
had drained the pond looking for submarines after the lagoon drained shortly after Clinton's visit.
Groyne
A groyne (in the U.S. groin) is a rigid aquatic structure built perpendicularly from an ocean shore (in coastal engineering) or a river bank, interrupting water flow and limiting the movement of sediment. It is usually made out of wood, concrete ...
jetties at the pond have been accused of causing beach erosion in
Southampton, New York
Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stre ...
as they are thought to interrupt the normal east to west flow of sand in the
longshore drift
Longshore drift from longshore current is a geological process that consists of the transportation of sediments (clay, silt, pebbles, sand, shingle, shells) along a coast parallel to the shoreline, which is dependent on the angle of incoming w ...
.
Dunehampton unsuccessfully attempted to incorporate in part to have legal standing in the debate. Likewise,
Sagaponack, New York
Sagaponack ( ) is a Village (New York), village in the Southampton, New York, Town of Southampton in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, on the East End (Long Island), East End of Long Island, in New York (state), New York, United States. T ...
incorporated for the same reason.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Georgica Pond was involved in a tradition known as "letting" that was carried out by local Indigenous peoples. This entails discharging fresh water from the pond into a bay or ocean. This was an issue primarily because it was thought to disturb the pond's ecosystem and lower the water table in the area. This addition of saltwater and anadromous species into the pond could be detrimental to the Pond's living ecosystem. However, in the Georgica Pond case, "letting" done in the late 1980s and 1990s relieved flooding and made the pond more ecologically sound. It was found that letting seemed to be an overall benefit to the pond's ecology. It was also found that letting made flooding less frequent and lessened the magnitude of the flood.
Georgica Pond is where the famed
Grey Gardens estate is located.
A sandy area near the pond is a nesting ground for the
piping plover
The piping plover (''Charadrius melodus'') is a small sand-colored, Passerellidae, sparrow-sized wader, shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange-red legs, a black band acro ...
.
References
External links
Georgica Pond Images (Alfred C Thompson III)
{{Coord, 40.938156, -72.229614, display=title
East Hampton (town), New York
Lagoons of New York (state)
Bodies of water of Suffolk County, New York