Florida is racing to protect the Miami Circle after a seawall collapsed near the ancient site
Sections of the site containing the ancient Miami Circle are at risk of washing into the Miami River following the collapse of a long-deteriorating seawall.
The mysterious 38-foot circle, carved into the limestone bedrock 2,000 years ago by now-extinct Tequesta Indians, isn't in jeopardy. But unexcavated historical treasures such as bones, pottery, beads or tools surrounding it could be -- especially if a severe storm or hurricane hits.
''The circle itself isn't going anywhere as the result of erosion,'' said archaeologist Bob Carr, who unearthed the carving in 1998 on the site of a planned luxury high-rise. ``The problem is that there are still valuable artifacts on that site that you could lose.''
State engineers were scrambling Wednesday to shore up a crumbling 100-foot section of seawall that tumbled into the dark water just east of the Brickell Avenue bridge, taking a 10-foot-wide chunk of riverbank with it.
''Anytime a seawall collapses and you're exposed, it's a bad situation,'' said Stephen Threet, an emergency response manager for the Florida Deparment of Environmental Protection, who surveyed damage on Wednesday. The planned, short-term patch is to line the riverbank with large boulders.
The bigger concern is that the roughly 300 remaining feet of weakened seawall could peel away at any time, leaving the prime piece of waterfront bought by the state and Miami-Dade County for $26.7 million unprotected from the daily erosion of currents, tides and ship wakes and, in the worst case, devastating damage from hurricane storm surge and wind-whipped waves.
For more, see the Miami Herald.
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road