History Main / SandBridgeAtLowTide

** ''[[VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash Double Dash!]]'' has a course with a similar gimmick.

Not only does this allow an island to be a little accessed secret, but also provides the opportunity for people [[ClosedCircle to be trapped]] on an island while plot happens at them.

** In the FestivalEpisode, Sarah and Su strand themselves on an island, where they are soon joined by a "shipwrecked" Kitsune. After a night of worrying how to get themselves rescued, help comes to them across a bridge of sand revealed by the tide.

* In the ''ComicBook/GilJourdan'' comic "La Voiture Immergée" (The Submerged Car) there is an 8-km stone bridge at low tide. The baddie killed his victim, and attempted to kill the hero, by siphoning their fuel tank so they'll run out of fuel right in the middle and be swept away by the tide. [[spoiler:Gil and co. set their car on fire to draw attention from the coast and get rescued.]]

* Plays a critical part in the famous Old English poem ''Literature/TheBattleOfMaldon'', a commemoration of real-life events: In 991 AD, an army of vikings had landed on an island in the Blackwater estuary in Essex which was connected to the mainland by a causeway only accessible at low tide. Englishmen and Vikings fighting over the causeway makes up the first part of the poem.

* In ''Literature/{{Kidnapped}}'', David Balfour is stranded after a shipwreck on the tiny island of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erraid Erraid]] off the coast of Mull and survives by eating limpets for several days. He's then embarrassed to learn that it's a tidal island and he could have walked back to shore days ago; some local fishermen did try to tell him his mistake, but the LanguageBarrier between their Gaelic and David's English stopped the message getting through.

* ''Series/BassieEnAdriaan'': In the France episode of "De Geheimzinnige Opdracht", the real life example of Mont Saint-Michel is the hiding place of the package, with the riddle to find the package describing it as "a castle you can walk to if you're on time", which in this case means during low tide.

* ''WesternAnimation/ShapeIsland'': The episode "Circle Makes A Mistake" has Circle inviting the other shapes across a sand bridge to a smaller island containing ancient ruins, and unwittingly getting them stranded there because she forgot the tide comes up higher at night and covers the bridge, which wouldn't have been a problem if not for the ''other'' thing she forgot; that Square and Triangle have legs and can't just hover over the water like she can.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/BassieEnAdriaan'': In the France episode of "De Geheimzinnige Opdracht", the real life example of Mont Saint-Michel is the hiding place of the package, with the riddle to find the package describing it as "a castle you can walk to if you're on time", which in this case means during low tide.
[[/folder]]

* ''Film/ExodusGodsAndKings'' has the Red Sea parting [[DoingInTheWizard do in the wizard]] with this. Instead of Moses parting the Red Sea with divine magic, he is given cryptic foreknowledge of a well-timed tsunami that draws back the tide abnormally low for his Exodus to cross over the resulting bare sea floor, and then Ramses's pursuers get slammed by the subsequent GiantWallOfWateryDoom shortly afterwards.

* Lindisfarne in Northumberland, a popular tourist destination for its historic castle and monastery. There is now a tarmacked road to the island -- although it's still inaccessible at high tide.

* Burgh Island in Devon can be accessed by walking across the beach from Bigbury-on-Sea at low tide. The hotel on Burgh Island was the inspiration for the big house on the island in ''Literature/AndTheThereWereNone'' — although that island is not an example of one of these.

* An instance of this trope is represented by the card “Stretch of Beach” in the Greed Island arc of ''Manga/HunterXHunter''.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** In the episode of the anime called "The Crystal Onix", Ash and the gang find that the way to the mythical cave is a sandbar that only appears at certain times of the day.
** One of the Decolora Islands episodes has one of these as well.
** There's also such a bridge that connects Shalour City to the Tower of Mastery.

* After all the trouble Wataru goes through to get off of Promised Island in ''LightNovel/SisterPrincess'', he discovers that he could have ''walked'' away on the one night a month when the dry land path connecting it to the Japanese shore appears.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewScoobyDooMovies'': In "[[Recap/TheNewScoobyDooMoviesTheSecretOfSharkIsland The Secret of Shark Island]]", it's a regular wooden bridge rather than a sand bridge, but the route to Shark Island and its hotel is only accessible for a couple of days a week when the tide is low. Naturally, the hotel guests only discover this once they want to leave.

* The wad/Watt/vade on the southern and south-eastern shores of the North Sea. People frequently trek out to the islands across the tidal flats during low tides as a family outing, though it is essential to pay attention to one's location and the tides, [[OhCrap lest one find the way back to dry land cut off by the rising tide]].

* The Waddenzee which sits in between the mainland of the Netherlands and its tiny chain of islands. People frequently trek out to the islands during low tides as a family outing.

* Mont Saint-Michel, a French islet on the coastline of Normandy, can be reached during the low tide by a bridge of sand (as long as you watch out for [[QuicksandSucks quicksand]]);eventually, an actual bridge was built. The tide is proverbially said to come back up at the speed of a galloping horse.

* Mont Saint-Michel, a French islet on the coastline of Normandy, can be reached during the low tide by a bridge of sand (eventually, an actual bridge was built). The tide is proverbially said to come back up at the speed of a galloping horse.

* In ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater'', Marie discovers a sand bridge that forms at least once a day between the beach of the deserted island the children find themselves on, and the piece of the wrecked ship which is caught upon a rock just off shore.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' had a number of them, such as the monastary at the Trident delta and the castle that Bran hides in, although as the latter is nowhere near the ocean, tides as such are not involved.
* In Meredith Ann Pierce's ''The Woman who Loved Reindeer'', one of these allows a migrating tribe to continue on their way. ([[TheFairFolk Capricious spirit-beings]] are involved.)

* Done backwards in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'' our heroes walk onto Saldine island, then find themselves stranded at high tide.

* Mont Saint-Michel, a French islet in the coastline of Normandy, can be reached during the low tide by a bridge of sand (eventually, an actual bridge was built). The tide is proverbially said to come back up at the speed of a galloping horse.
** Also, Saint Michael's Mount, a similar Cornish islet which can be reached by an artificial causeway, only accessible at low tide.

* The Waddenzee which sits inbetween the mainland of the Netherlands and its tiny chain of islands. People frequently trek out to the islands during low tides as a family outing.

* In 1798 UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte and a small force tried to cross the Gulf of Suez where the water had receded, but were nearly drowned by the returning tide. Afterwards he speculated that the "Parting of the Red Sea" (and subsequent drowning of the pursuing Pharaoh's army) might have been inspired by a similar event (the Gulf of Suez is at the northern end of the Red Sea).

* Lindisfarne in Northumberland, a popular tourist destination for its historic castle and monastery. There is now a tarmacked road to the island.

* ''Film/ExodusGodsAndKings'' has the Red Sea parting [[DoingInTheWizard do in the wizard]] with this. Instead of Moses parting the Red Sea with divine magic, he is given cryptic foreknowledge of a well-timed tsunami that draws back the tide abnormally low for his Exodus to cross over the resulting bare sea floor, and then Ramses's pursuers get slammed by the subsequent huge wave shortly afterwards.

* After all the trouble Wataru goes through to get off of Promised Island in ''LightNovel/SisterPrincess'', he discovers that he could have ''walked'' away on the one night a month when the dry land path connecting it to the Japanese shore appears.
* In the FestivalEpisode of ''Manga/LoveHina'', Sarah and Su strand themselves on an island, where they are soon joined by a "shipwrecked" Kitsune. After a night of worrying how to get themselves rescued, help comes to them across a bridge of sand revealed by the tide.

* In the episode of ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' called "The Crystal Onix", Ash and the gang find that the way to the mythical cave is a sandbar that only appears at certain times of the day.
** One of the Decolora Islands episodes has one of these as well.
** There's also such a bridge that connects Shalour City to the Tower of Mastery.

* ''{{ComicBook/Northlanders}}'': In the two issue "The Shield Maidens" arc, three [[AmazonBrigade Viking women fight]] off an army of Saxons from inside an {{Ancient Rom|e}}an fortress that is only reachable at low tide via a sand bridge.

* ''[[{{Film/TheScarletPimpernel1982}} The Scarlet Pimpernel]]'' ends up on one (Mont Saint-Michel, below in Real Life), partly in an effort to create a ClosedCircle where Sir Percy can confront Chauvelin without his men as backup.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' had a number of them, such as the monastary at the Trident delta and the castle that Bran hides in, although as the latter is nowhere near the ocean, tides as such are not involved.

* In Meredith Ann Pierce's ''The Woman who Loved Reindeer'', one of these allows a migrating tribe to continue on their way. ([[TheFairFolk Capricious spirit-beings]] are involved.)
* Plays a critical part in the famous Old English poem ''Literature/TheBattleOfMaldon'', a commemoration of real-life events: In 991 AD, an army of vikings had landed on an island in the Blackwater estuary in Essex which was connected to the mainland by a causeway only accessible at low tide. Englishmen and Vikings fighting over the causeway makes up the first part of the poem.
* ''Literature/AbelsIsland'': Not quite, but after a few weeks of no rain, the water gets lower and the current slow enough that Abel imagines he might now be able to swim across. [[spoiler:He makes it]].

** In ''Five Go To Demon's Rocks'', the lighthouse is built out to sea, and can be reached on foot at low tide; otherwise, a boat is necessary. Some nearby underground caves are also flooded at high tide. When the Five are locked in the lighthouse, Julian and Dick try to escape through the foundation shaft of the lighthouse, but are thwarted by their enemies; and as they try to escape, the tide starts rising, threatening to drown them.
---> '''Dick:''' [[NightmareFuel I think this must be a bad dream.]] The tide's coming in.
** In ''Five Go To Smuggler's Top'', tides are not mentioned, but the island of Castaway (very similar to the Mont St Michel in France) was once an island until sea levels dropped. The island can only be reached by one road, with dangerous misty marshes on both sides.

* ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'''s Koopa Troopa Beach uses this trope as a shortcut.

* In 1798 UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte and a small force tried to cross the Gulf of Suez where the water had receded, but were nearly drowned by the returning tide. Afterwards he speculated that the 'Parting of the Red Sea' (and subsequent drowning of the pursuing Pharaoh's army) might have been inspired by a similar event (the Gulf of Suez is at the northern end of the Red Sea).