Atlantic City, New Jersey

Atlantic City, New Jersey, is a coastal resort city known for its numerous casinos, historic boardwalk, and beautiful beaches. Originally incorporated in 1854, Atlantic City evolved from a simple beachside haven for city dwellers in nearby Philadelphia into a sprawling gambling mecca that attracts tens of millions of visitors every year. Often viewed as the eastern seaboard’s Las Vegas, Atlantic City has long had a presence in American popular culture similar to that of its western counterpart. It was the inspiration for the popular board game Monopoly and the birthplace and long-time home of the Miss America pageant. It has also been prominently featured in films like Atlantic City (1980) and television shows such as Boardwalk Empire (2010). Despite frequently facing various economic woes tied to its close relationship with the gaming industry, Atlantic City remains one of the most unique and recognizable beach resorts in the world.

Background

The island on which Atlantic City sits first served as the summertime home of an Algonquian-speaking Native American people known as the Lenni Lenape. They referred to the island off the southern New Jersey coast as “Absegami,” or “Little Water.” During warmer months, the Lenni Lenape frequently traveled to the island from the mainland to hunt and fish. Owing to its remote location and poor-quality soil, early European settlers in the region rarely ventured out to what they renamed Absecon Island. English settler Thomas Budd became the first officially recorded European landowner on the island in the 1670s, but no permanent structures were built there for more than a century.

The development of Absecon Island was ultimately spurred by the rise of the one-time whaling town of Cape May to the south. In the early nineteenth century, Cape May hotels started marketing themselves as summertime destinations for Philadelphians. The strategy worked and, with the advent of commercial steamboats in the 1820s, Cape May quickly became a thriving beach resort for wealthy visitors from many nearby cities.

Where Cape May was a seaside enclave for the elite, Coney Island in New York City was a beachfront amusement paradise for the working class. With this dichotomy in mind, New Jersey physician Dr. Jonathan Pitney came up with the idea of creating a similar resort aimed specifically at the middle class around 1850. Geography led him to Absecon Island, which happened to be positioned just 62 miles (99 kilometers) from and exactly due east of Philadelphia. Pitney and civil engineer Richard Osbourne also had the foresight to see the advantage of building a railroad connecting the city to the shore. In 1854, two years after the construction of the Camden-Atlantic City Railroad got underway, the newly incorporated city of Atlantic City welcomed its first visitors. With its close proximity to several major cities and relatively inexpensive access via train, Atlantic City attracted many tourists looking for an escape from the sweltering summer heat and soon became one of the fastest-growing towns on the New Jersey coast. By the 1880s, it had become a thriving beach resort.

Overview

Once founded, Atlantic City underwent many transformations. In its early days, the resort’s main draw was the sea and the potential health benefits it provided to bathers. Unfortunately, getting to the water required traversing across a sandy beach. This meant that sand got everywhere and caused an array of problematic maintenance issues. In the 1870s, clever Atlantic City residents came up with the idea to lay wooden planks on the sand for tourists to walk on without stepping in sand. This simple yet ingenious feat of engineering, which was initially a temporary setup that was removed in the winter, became known as the boardwalk. As several successive permanent versions were built in the years that followed, the boardwalk became the signature Atlantic City landmark. The boardwalk also drove the city’s first transformation from a health resort into a mecca of fun and entertainment. Amusement piers and large hotels were soon built. The city itself grew with the addition of theaters where Broadway-style shows were staged and nightclubs where great musicians performed. From the 1880s through the 1940s, Atlantic City, then known as the Nation’s Playground, was in its heyday.

With the advent of affordable air travel in the 1950s, Atlantic City began to lose its luster as a vacation destination. This led to a precipitous decline that lasted through the 1960s and well into the 1970s. The pressing need for economic recovery eventually resulted in Atlantic City’s next major transformation. In 1976, New Jersey residents voted to legalize gambling in Atlantic City, hoping that the once popular resort could be revitalized with the resources to be gained via the gaming industry. Resorts International, Atlantic City’s first casino, opened in 1978 and many more soon followed. Most casinos, including favorites like Caesar’s and Bally’s, were built directly on the boardwalk. Others, like Harrah’s, were built in the nearby marina area. Within a decade, Atlantic City was reborn as a popular gambling resort that attracted more than thirty-three million visitors each year.

While Atlantic City was undoubtedly a success in terms of the casino business, the city itself did not benefit from gambling’s legalization as much as anticipated. Outside the casinos, much of Atlantic City continued to decay even though casino revenues soared to unprecedented heights by the 1990s. The city itself had a crumbling infrastructure and rising crime and unemployment. The need for revitalization and recovery once again led to a critical transformation. In the early twenty-first century, work began on building a new generation of casinos to replace some of the older facilities that no longer attracted large crowds. Despite setbacks like the Great Recession and the legalization of gambling in nearby areas, new casinos like Revel (now Ocean Casino Resort) and Borgata found some success and helped Atlantic City begin to find its footing once more. Nevertheless, the city continues to face serious economic problems that may necessitate yet another significant transformation. Noteworthy problems include increases in homelessness, rising sea levels and problems attatched to climate change such as an eroding beach, and an overall decline in business.

Bibliography

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“History of Casino Gambling in Atlantic City.” Atlantic City Free Public Library, acfpl.org/ac-history-menu/atlantic-city-heritage-collections/15-heston-archives/68-history-of-casino-gambling-in-atlantic-city.html. Accessed 29 Dec. 2024.

Jackson, Sharifa. “Concerns Grow Over Beach Erosion in Parts of Atlantic City, NJ.” ABC, 22 Apr. 2024, 6abc.com/earth-day-2024-concerns-grow-over-beach-erosion-in-parts-of-atlantic-city-new-jersey/14716080/. Accessed 29 Dec. 2024.

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