Beach stairs broke apart, fell against dune at popular Cape Cod beach
SOUTH WELLFLEET — The late-week storm proved to be too much for the Marconi Beach stairs.
Heavy winds and surf coupled with astronomically high tides over several days tore the wood stairs away from a platform at the top of the bluff. A large section of the stairs was lying against the dune at the bottom of the bluff midday on Sunday with pieces scattered around the beach.
Cape Cod National Seashore officials closed the stairs Friday. The parking lot remained opened Sunday morning with access to the stairs boarded off.
Marconi Beach is one of the Seashore beaches facing the Atlantic Ocean along the easternmost shores of Cape Cod.
The stairs that led from the Marconi Beach parking lot in South Wellfleet to the beach below were torn away during the weekend storm, coming to rest against the dune. Photos taken Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, show the damaged stairs and the debris field nearby. There is no access from the parking lot to the beach. The nearest beach access points with parking lots are Maguire Landing at Lecount Hollow in Wellfleet and Nauset Light Beach in Eastham.
Marconi: No beach access
There was no access Sunday to Marconi Beach from the South Wellfleet beach parking lot but the beach is still reachable by foot from Maguire Landing at Lecount Hollow in Wellfleet and Nauset Light Beach in Eastham. Both of these access points would require a more than two-mile, one-way walk to reach Marconi Beach.
The current Marconi Beach stairs, now damaged, were newly built over the spring and opened just before Memorial Day.
The Marconi Beach stairs in South Wellfleet were heavily damaged during the weekend storm, coming to rest on the dune. Photos taken on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, show the damaged stairs and the debris field nearby. There is no access from the beach parking lot to the beach below. The nearest beach access points with parking lots are Maguire Landing at Lecount Hollow in Wellfleet and Nauset Light Beach in Eastham.
The Seashore replaced the aging and weathered stairs at the beach. Over the years, the stairway has had to be rebuilt due to storm damage. The rebuilt stairway was part of a series of construction projects including road and parking lot paving, new signs, restroom updates and fee booth replacements “aimed at improving visitor safety and park infrastructure,” according to a Seashore release.
The Marconi Area of the Seashore was named for the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. From a site nearby, Marconi successfully completed the first transatlantic wireless communication between the U.S. and England in 1903.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Storm takes out popular Cape Cod beach stairs, after repairs in spring
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