Atlantic City Boardwalk

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Atlantic City Boardwalk
Atlantic City Boardwalk view south from Caesars Atlantic City by Silveira Neto June 24 2012.jpg
View of the boardwalk
Atlantic City Boardwalk
Location Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S.
Coordinates 39°20′59″N74°27′03″W / 39.34972°N 74.45083°W / 39.34972; -74.45083
Area5.5 miles (8.9 km) long
OpenedJune 26, 1870;155 years ago (1870-06-26)
StatusOpen

The Atlantic City Boardwalk is an oceanfront boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Opened in 1870, it is the first, oldest, longest, and busiest boardwalk in the world. [1]

Contents

Description

The Atlantic City Boardwalk is 5+1⁄2 miles (8.9 km) long, the world's longest. The Boardwalk starts at Absecon Inlet in the north and runs along the beach south-west to the city limit 4 mi (6.4 km) away then continues 1+1⁄2 mi (2.4 km) into Ventnor City. Casino/hotels front the boardwalk, as well as retail stores, restaurants, and amusements. Notable attractions include the Boardwalk Hall, House of Blues, and the Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum.

History

Postcard from the 1910s A mile of the Atlantic City boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ.png
Postcard from the 1910s

It opened on June 26, 1870. [2] A temporary structure erected for the summer season that was the first boardwalk in the world. [3] [4] [5] [6] The first pier along the boardwalk, Applegate's Pier, opened in 1884. [7] It was acquired by John L. Young in 1891, who expanded and operated it as Young's Ocean Pier, but it was mostly destroyed in a 1912 fire. The remaining part of the pier was rebuilt in 1922 as the Central Pier, which is still in operation. [8]

A Heinz-owned pier named Heinz Pier was destroyed in the 1944 Great Atlantic hurricane. [9]

The most famous Atlantic City pier was Steel Pier, which opened in 1898, and which once billed itself as "The Showplace of the Nation". It closed in 1978, and was mostly destroyed in a 1982 fire. It was rebuilt in the late 1980s and is now operated as an amusement pier across from the Hard Rock.

Steeplechase Pier opened in 1899 and operated until 1986. It suffered significant damage in a 1988 fire, and the remnants of the pier were removed in 1996. The "Steeplechase Pier Heliport" on Steel Pier is named in its honor. [10] In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy destroyed the northern part of the boardwalk fronting Absecon Inlet, in the residential section called South Inlet. The oceanfront boardwalk in front of the Atlantic City casinos survived the storm with minimal damage. [11] [12]

Captain John L. Young opened "Young's Million Dollar Pier" in 1906, and on the seaward side "erected a marble mansion", fronted by a formal garden, with lighting and landscaping designed by Young's longtime friend Thomas Alva Edison. Million Dollar Pier once rivaled Steel Pier as Atlantic City's leading pier, [13] but after suffering decades of decline, was rebuilt into a shopping mall in the 1980s, known as "Shops on Ocean One". In 2006, the Ocean One mall was bought, renovated and re-branded as "The Pier Shops at Caesars" and in 2015, it was renamed "Playground Pier". In September 2023, it was renamed "ACX1 Studios" for the film and entertainment production studios that took over the building, with a planned grand reopening containing a mixture of retail, restaurants, creative space, and production studios in summer of 2024.

Boardwalk - Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA - October 3, 2023 02.jpg

See also

References

  1. ↑ Today in History: June 26, Library of Congress. Accessed June 23, 2016. "On June 26, 1870, the first section of the Atlantic City Boardwalk opened along the New Jersey beach."
  2. ↑ "Atlantic City's First Boardwalk - June, 1870 | Atlantic County, NJ". www.atlanticcountynj.gov. Archived from the original on August 11, 2025. Retrieved October 5, 2025.
  3. ↑ Atlantic City FAQs: Where and when was the first boardwalk constructed?, Atlantic City Free Public Library. Accessed September 21, 2016. "The first boardwalk built in the United States was in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1870."
  4. ↑ Shea, Rachel Hartigan. "After Sandy: The Future of Boardwalks; In age of extreme weather, should they be rebuilt, redesigned, defended by dunes?", National Geographic , November 10, 2012. Accessed September 21, 2016. "The first boardwalk built in the United States was a temporary structure. Two local businessmen, weary of sand being tracked into their establishments, convinced the city council of Atlantic City to create a boardwalk in 1870."
  5. ↑ "Atlantic City Boardwalk". State of New Jersey. January 31, 2014. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
  6. ↑ Derek Hall (August 15, 2023). "N.J.'s aging boardwalks to get a $100M facelift". NJ Advance Media. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  7. ↑ Down the Shore: Summer in Atlantic City Archived June 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine , Independence Seaport Museum. Accessed June 23, 2016. "The first Atlantic City boardwalk was built in 1870, and twelve years later, in 1882, Ocean Pier, the world's first oceanside amusement pier was constructed."
  8. ↑ Keough, W. F. "Central Pier Rides Again / A.C. Gets a Family Amusement Center", The Press of Atlantic City , June 3, 1990. Accessed August 23, 2013. "Central Pier, vacant since the dawn of casino gaming, will re-open its doors Saturday in an $8 million effort by its owners to re-create one of the resort's most famous pre-casino attractions – its amusement parks. Visitors who plan to test the rides later this week at the city's oldest pier will be treated to the screaming upside-down rush of a Super Loop, or the musical lure of a merry-go-round by the sea."
  9. ↑ Flynn, Ed. "The Heinz Pier in Atlantic City a 'variety' of fun", Northjersey.com, March 7, 2013. Accessed August 23, 2013.
  10. ↑ Steeplechase Pier Heliport. Accessed March 10, 2012.
  11. ↑ Brennan, John. "Putting the Atlantic City Boardwalk myth to bed", The Record , October 30, 2012, backed up by the Internet Archive as of November 3, 2012. Accessed June 23, 2016. "The Atlantic City Boardwalk that was washed out by Hurricane Sandy is an area limited to the Boardwalk fronting the Absecon Inlet only. That small section of the Boardwalk is located in South Inlet, a prominent residential section of Atlantic City. It is a small stretch of Boardwalk that is being shown in video footage and photos."
  12. ↑ Jaffe, Greg. "Atlantic City takes stock of storm damage", The Washington Post , October 30, 2012. Accessed June 23, 2016. "One section of the famed boardwalk was destroyed, but most of it was intact, and on Tuesday, as white foam from the roiling Atlantic Ocean sprayed across it, the only people around were a few store owners who had come to check on their shops, some wave watchers and a few homeless men."
  13. ↑ Johnson, Nelson (2010). Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City. Foreword by Terence Winter. Medford, New Jersey: Plexus Publishing, Inc. p. 30.
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