This image I find to be a fair representation of how "LBI" struck me. Devoid of people due to the season, yet totally transformed by their prescence. This image would be impossible without the hand of man attempting to control his surroundings.

What looks like a cross is actually the mast of a boat. The boat was being towed south for salvage or scrap and ran aground after breaking loose from its tow. It was considered too expensive to remove it from where it landed, so it was abandoned. Originally this placed the boat exposed at the edge of the waterline, but a stone jetty was built a short distance to the north, and now the hull has been covered by the building sand. That sand has also created a beach up to a quarter mile wide in places--not at all what nature intended, but convenient enough for humans to delude themselves into thinking they have control.

I expect that one day a major hurricane, or possibly a tsunami, will come along and undo what has been artificially created here.