Waikiki Beach: History of its transformation - Hawaii.gov

Figure 7. Magic Island (Aina Moana), Ala Wai Canal entrance channel, Ala Wai Yacht Harbor, Duke Kahanamoku Beach
and Lagoon, Fort DeRussy Beach. Aerial photo, 30 January 1999. (By R.L. Wiegel, #9523.)
tillery guns was in 1913. This is described
by Dorrance in The Coast Defense Study
Group Journal (1998; 1999) and in
Hibbard and Franzen (1986). Dorrance
(1998) says:
“On November 12, 1908, Headquarters
and Company A, First Battalion of Engineers,
arrived under the command of Maj.
E. Eveleth Winslow.... Winslow soon had
a hydraulic dredge on site that blasted
through the offshore reef, dredged a channel
to the shoreline, and deposited the
dredged bottom sand and coral within the
reservation. By the end of 1910 the dredge’s
Figure 8. Kewalo Basin, Ala Moana Beach Park, Magic Island (Aina Moana); aerial photo, 19 January 1988. Note
dredged channel in front of the man-made beach. (By R.L. Wiegel, #6354.)
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work was done and construction of fortifications
could begin.”
A suction dredge was used to obtain
material for fill from the reef in front of
the reservation. It was pumped through
a pipe to the site (Thompson 1985).
Thompson also states (1985):
“In preparation for the arrival of the
69-ton guns, a deep channel was dredged
through the reef in front of Fort DeRussy
so the cannon could be barged from Honolulu
to as close to the battery as possible.”
Dorrance (1999) says:
“Delivery of the 69-ton guns ... was
another matter. ... [sic, the ship] Lurline
was directed to Pearl Harbor, where a
heavy duty floating crane was located.
... On August 2, 1913...the navy crane offloaded
the gun onto a barge... Three days
later the gun-bearing barge was towed to
Waikiki Beach where it was pushed
through the reef and aground in front of
Battery Randolph’s parapet. ...The channel
[sic, that was previously] dredged for
bottom sand and fill was deepened and
widened for this operation.”
Shore & Beach Vol. 76, No. 2 Spring 2008