An engineer from Romney Marsh advised the local fisherman that the construction of 3 timber/stone jetties would protect the cliff (below the parish church).
Smith became a contractor in New York City and did much work for the federal government, including the stone ice-breaker at Bridgeport, Connecticut, the jetties at the mouth of the Connecticut River, the foundation for the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, the Race Rock Lighthouse (southwest of Fishers Island, New York) and many life-saving stations.
Solid jetties, moreover, lined with quay walls, are sometimes carried out into a wide dock,at right angles to the line of quays at the side, to enlarge the accommodation; and they also serve, when extended on a large scale from the coast of a tideless sea under shelter of an outlying breakwater, to form the basins in which vessels lie when discharging and taking in cargoes in such a port as Marseille.
The passenger service was withdrawn on 4 January 1965 but the line remains open to carry china clay to the jetties at Fowey.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers took over the maintenance of the inlets and jetties in the 1980s.
Floods effects are further worsened due to greater erosion by the sea caused by human interventions to facilitate port activities (e.g. jetties, artificial canals); establishment of the industrial Porto Marghera area; and increased wash from motorized boats, which aggravate erosion of morphological structures and the foundations of quaysides and buildings.
A common scene in the area is the rickety wooden jetties with the dried fish speciality, Bokkoms hung up the dry.