Atlantic City is one of America’s oldest and grandest resorts. As far back as 1874, some 500,000 people were taking the train from Philadelphia and New York to take a stroll on America’s first boardwalk.
Tourism peaked in the early decades of the 20th century. Shortly after the turn of the century, Atlantic City experienced a building boom with numerous large beachside hotels being erected. The 1920’s was the heyday for tourism, especially amongst those who sought to find their way around Prohibition. Since then the city’s fortunes have waxed and waned.
By the 50’s and 60’s the city was in decline. As more and more Americans took to the road in their family automobiles and airline travel grew in popularity, more travel and vacation options became available. At the same time Atlantic City was suffering from the crime and poverty that plagued many east coast cities at the time.
In 1976 New Jersey decided that gambling was the answer to reviving the city’s tourism industry. The first casino opened in 1978 and several more followed. At the time, casino options for Americans were Las Vegas or Atlantic City.
But by the 2000’s, casinos opened in metro New York and Philadelphia as well as Connecticut. Those were the areas where most of Atlantic City’s visitors came from. Tourism declined, as did casino revenues and local employment. This decline reached its peak in 2014 when five of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos closed. At the time Politico headlined a story about Atlantic City “Detroit with a Boardwalk.”
But it turns out the doomsayers may have spoken too soon. A.C. is anything but the ghost town some predicted, as evidenced by the photo below taken two weekends ago.
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While you can build a casino just about anywhere, what you are never going to have in Yonkers or Wilkes-Barre or Mashantucket, Conn., is the ocean and the beautiful sandy beach. And on top of that, two new casinos opened in Atlantic City this year, revenues are up and Stockton University just built on Oceanside campus that opens this fall.
The new Hard Rock Hotel and Casino opened in June.
If you’ve played monopoly, you know the names of many of the streets in Atlantic City since the popular board game, which was first marketed in 1935, was based on the Jersey resort. And you will also know what the most valuable property is. Here’s a virtual tour of the Atlantic City boardwalk.
The Atlantic City rolling chair, originally introduced on the boardwalk in the 1880’s
Steel Pier 2018
Steel Pier, 1913
Helicopter tour taking off from Steel Pier
Joseph Fralinger began selling salt water taffy at his boardwalk stand in 1884.
All that’s left of Trump is the M and the P.
Boardwalk Hall, built in 1926, began hosting the Miss America pageant in 1940
New Jersey Korean War Memorial
And some not-so-classic Atlantic City
Back bay sunset
off the leash 
You’re so right … as long as there’s an ocean …
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Looks like Atlantic City has its own lure.
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It’s interesting to hear about the ups and down of Atlantic City. I’ve never been and hadn’t realized it had such a long resort history. I also didn’t know the connection to the Monopoly game. Ocean and sandy beach are always a good attraction.
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An American icon city, for sure. Enjoyed a stroll down the boardwalk with you, Ken.
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Good post. I was in Atlantic City from July 23-26 of this year and it was my first visit in 4 years. It has changed. The Hard Rock Hotel in Atlantic City puts the one in Las Vegas to shame . It’s so wicked beautiful . I did several posts on it for my blog. I’d like to go back again to AC.
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What lure! You knew many ladies would be taken in. Hahaha haha! You had better be careful, you may end up with a string of women on your arm! The photos are also captivating. And the song–tops! It is indicated that video is not available. )-:
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Thanks, I’ll fix the video.
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Two nights ago I had dinner with a friend. He told me that he recently had walked three miles on the AC boardwalk. For some reason I’ve been to the Jersey shore only a handful of times in my adult life, even though I don’t live terribly far away. Your article, and my friend’s stories about AC, make me want to pay a visit.
Neil S.
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Thanks for the walk down memory lane, Ken. Not my favorite of the Jersey shore towns, but still a fun place. I think the casinos missed an opportunity to revitalize and historically preserve a lot of the actual city as opposed to just focusing on the boardwalk, but hey, that’s capitalism, right?
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They were shortsighted. They never appreciated that the city itself could have been their way to attract customers. Nor did they seem to understand that the day would come when they weren’t the only place around to gamble.
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😩😩😩
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I’ve never visited Atlantic City, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the spectacle of it all at least once.
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