Dungeness Spit is a 5.5-mile (8.9 km) long sand spit jutting out from the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula in northeastern Clallam County, Washington, USA, into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The body of water it encloses is called Dungeness Bay. The Dungeness Spit is entirely within the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge and home of the Dungeness Lighthouse. It is the longest natural sand spit in the United States. Its land area, according to the United States Census Bureau, is 1,271,454 square meters (0.4909 sq mi, or 314.18 acres). The lighthouse once was run by United States Coast Guard, but since an automatic light was installed, it has been run by the "New Dungeness Lighthouse Organization". The spit is open to the public year around.
It was first found by Europeans during the Spanish 1790 Quimper expedition. The name "Dungeness" comes from the Dungeness headland in England. The spit was named by explorer George Vancouver in 1792, who wrote: "The low sandy point of land, which from its great resemblance to Dungeness in ths British Channel, I called New Dungeness."
In December 2001 a heavy winter storm forced water over the spit. The next morning the spit was broken in three places, and vehicles supplying the lighthouse were not able to traverse the spit for about a month.
View of Spit from shoreFamous quotes containing the word spit:
“You don’t hit a child when you want him to stop hitting. You don’t yell at a children to get them to stop yelling. Or spit at a child to indicate that he should not spit. Of course, you want children to know how to sympathize with others and to “know how it feels,” but you ... have to show them how to act—not how not to act.”
—Jeannette W. Galambos (20th century)