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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
Meanwhile the Camden and Atlantic Land Company had bought land at $17.50 an acre and, as a contemporary newspaper reported, planned "to sell it some day for as high as $500 per lot." By 1877 the pressure of traffic was so great that a second railroad to Camden, 54 miles away, was built in the fast time of 98 days. This was known as the Narrow Gauge Railroad because of its 3I/2-foot gauge, 14 inches less than standard. The West Jersey Railroad, known as the Electric, opened in 19o6; it now maintains only a daily run to Newfield.
The boardwalk was the joint conception in 1870 of a local hotel man, Jacob Keim, and a conductor on the Camden and Atlantic, Alexander Boardman. They agreed that the beach was the principal attraction of Atlantic City and noticed that this attraction was nullified by cool or cloudy weather. They had their fellow citizens sign a petition to council, and on June 26, 1870, the first boardwalk was completed. It was set directly upon the sands, and was only 8 feet wide. The present structure, the fifth, dates from 1896.
The next milestone in the history of the resort was the invention of the rolling chair in 1884. M. D. Shill, a Philadelphia manufacturer of invalid chairs, gocarts and perambulators, came to Atlantic City and opened a store to rent out baby carriages to summer families. He also rented out invalid chairs for convalescents and cripples. Within a few years these invalid chairs evolved into the double chair with a pusher. Triple chairs followed, completing the fleet of comfortable sightseeing chairs of today.
In 1895 the picture postcard was naturalized in Atlantic City. In that year the wife of Carl M. Voelker, a local resident, visited Germany and returned with the idea. Mr. Voelker turned them out in his printing shop as an advertising medium for the beach front hotels, and the fad spread across the country.
During these late years of the nineteenth century the making of salt water taffy became a thriving industry. The name was derived from association rather than ingredients. The product is really a form of pulled taffy and is sold now by three large firms operating chains of stores along the boardwalk.
Atlantic City's showmanship achieved real individuality with the creation of the amusement pier, the first of which was built in 1882. The economic principle was the same as that of the skyscraper, except that it operated horizontally, the aim being to occupy little space on the boardwalk, yet to pack as much amusement behind the entrances as was physically possible. After the first of these ingenious structures dipped its
spindly legs into the Atlantic's surf, others followed quickly. Their construction was facilitated, it is said, through the accidental discovery of a Negro laborer, who, while working in Delaware Bay, noticed the effect of water running swiftly from a hose upon the sand. His discovery of letting was used in sinking foundation piles for the piers.
With the establishment of the amusement pier, Atlantic City's mold was almost unalterably shaped. Since the turn of the century the resort
as largely devoted itself to improving and modernizing the basic amusement equipment and refining its technique of entertainment.
The city has shown itself determined to preserve an individuality, in spite of, or because of, its estimated 16,250,000 visitors. It retains the adopted metropolitan way of referring to streets as "blocks" instead of thre South Jersey-Philadelphia "squares." It has capitalized on its latitudinal southern location to simulate a Dixie hospitality.
Politically and commercially it has become the vortex of eastern South Jersey. Although Mays Landing is the county seat of Atlantic County, officials transact most of their business in branch offices at Atlantic City. Since the World War, civic leaders have encouraged the development of manufacturing, aware that their city, like any large resort, is subject to sudden loss of public favor through epidemics or natural disasters.
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