The Boynton Inlet: A History
The Boynton Inlet wasn't made by nature. Locals dug it in the 1920s to flush a polluted Lake Worth, and it opened on the night of March 16, 1927. Officially the South Lake Worth Inlet, it later became home to the world's first sand transfer plant.
What's here
- The South Lake Worth (Boynton) Inlet, opened in 1927.
- Jetties on both sides, extended in 1967.
- A sand transfer plant on the north jetty, first built in 1937.
- Ocean Inlet Park on the inlet's south side.
Good to know
The inlet is maintained by Palm Beach County, which took over in 1996 when the old inlet taxing district was abolished.
Why it was dug
By the 1910s, the south end of Lake Worth was badly polluted, partly from sewage dumping, and residents wanted a southern outlet to flush it with ocean water. A taxing district was created, plans were drawn up in 1923, and the Riddle Brothers engineering firm built the inlet between 1925 and 1927 for $225,000. A concrete bridge was finished in 1924, ahead of the cut.
At 11:18 p.m. on March 16, 1927, Atlantic water first flowed through the channel while spectators watched from the bridge under searchlights. The finished inlet was about 130 feet wide and only a few feet deep, built for flushing, not navigation.
A sand-moving first
Inlets trap sand that would otherwise drift south along the coast, starving the beaches below. In 1937 a sand transfer plant was installed on the north jetty to pump sand across the inlet, the first such plant anywhere. It has been upgraded several times, most recently rebuilt in 2011, and the jetties were extended in 1967.
A busy, tricky inlet
Though it wasn't designed for boats, the inlet became a popular passage for fishing and pleasure craft. It also earned a reputation as dangerous, thanks to shoaling, strong currents and close clearances: in 2006, more than 46,000 boat trips passed through it, with seven rescues. Watching boats run it from the park is one of the area's favorite pastimes.
The park today
Ocean Inlet Park, a Palm Beach County park of about 13 acres, now wraps the inlet's south side, with picnic grounds on the Intracoastal and a guarded beach and jetty on the ocean.
See the rest of the park
Inlet History is one of 6 featured areas at Ocean Inlet Park.