Wash Post — Who can use the beach? Erosion, tide lines and state laws make a difference.

July 24, 2021

By Thomas Ankersen — As Americans flock to beaches this summer, their toes are sinking into some of the most hotly contested real estate in the United States.

It wasn’t always this way. Through the mid-20th century, when the U.S. population was smaller and the coast was still something of a frontier in many states, laissez-faire and absentee coastal landowners tolerated people crossing their beachfront property.

Now, however, the coast has filled up. Property owners are much more inclined to seek to exclude an ever-growing population of beachgoers seeking access to less and less beach.

On most U.S. shorelines, the public has a time-honored right to “lateral” access. This means that people can move down the beach along the wet sand between high and low tide — a zone that usually is publicly owned. Waterfront property owners’ control typically stops at the high tide line or, in a few cases, the low tide line.

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