Shinnecock Canal

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Looking south toward the locks and Shinnecock Bay. The first bridge is the Sunrise Highway. The second bridge is the Long Island Rail Road

The Shinnecock Canal is a waterway that cuts across the South Fork of Long Island at Hampton Bays, New York. At 4,700 feet long, it connects Great Peconic Bay and the north fork of Long Island with Shinnecock Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The canal opened to traffic in 1892.

Although "the Hamptons" officially begins about 10 miles west at Westhampton, New York, the Shinnecock Canal in popular imagination marks the beginning of the Hamptons since traffic is funneled across two highway bridges (Sunrise Highway and Montauk Highway) or the Long Island Rail Road bridge.

Talk of building a canal on Shinnecock Creek had gone on for years and a popular myth says the Shinnecock Indian Nation and Montaukett Native Americans built the original canal in the 1600s. The canal’s location is specifically called Canoe Place because of this.

A Canal lock system had to be built in 1919 to alleviate dramatic differences in height between the two bays. The Peconic Bay to the north can be three feet higher than Shinnecock Bay. Further, the two bays have opposite tide cycles.

The lock system now is the only navigation lock operating on Long Island.

Looking north toward Peconic Bay from the Shinnecock Canal.

The lock increased the salinity levels in Shinnecock Bay which had nearly assumed fresh water proportions and was resulting in a dying off of its shell fish population even though it was separated from the Atlantic by a narrow barrier island.

Shinnecock Bay’s salinity levels were solidified during Great Hurricane of 1938 which broke through the barrier island to form Shinnecock Inlet almost due south of the canal. The new inlet has created a short cut to the Atlantic that is now used by 27,000 boats a year.

The canal itself varies in width from 100 to 180 feet. The lock is 41 feet wide and 250 feet long.