Marconi Beach

Named for Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraph station. Towering sand cliffs drop to a wide Atlantic beach. The dramatic erosion here is a visible reminder that the Cape is always changing.

Marconi Beach is the southernmost of the National Seashore's grand Atlantic beaches on the Outer Cape — a wide, lifeguarded strand at the foot of 70-foot eroding sand cliffs, with the largest paid-lot National Seashore facility this side of Race Point. The beach is named for the wireless-telegraph station Guglielmo Marconi built on the cliff above in 1903 — his transmitter sent the first transatlantic wireless message from US soil to King Edward VII in 1903. The original station site is gone, eroded into the sea over the last century along with the cliff itself, but a small interpretive overlook marks its former location. The beach below is broad and beautiful with a long view north toward Lecount and south toward Marconi Station Beach in Eastham; the swimming is true Atlantic with real waves and a strong longshore current. The dune-cliff staircase is steep — eighty-five steps — and the National Seashore replaces it every few years as the cliff retreats. White-shark patrol is active here in season.