Let the fun begin!
Welcome to Atlantic City, home of many firsts - The Boardwalk, salt water taffy and one of the first Ferris wheels.
Can you guess the reason that the Boardwalk was built? It wasn't designed as a promenade or even to make Atlantic City more famous. The "main street" of Atlantic City was actually put down to keep the sand off of the hotel carpets. It was an idea put forward by hotel owner Jacob Keim and railroad conductor Alexander Boardman. In fact, the Boardwalk is named after Alexander Boardman. It's just a coincidence that it's made out of boards.
Back in 1870, the Boardwalk wasn't a permanent structure. At the end of the season it was taken apart and stored for the winter. During that time, there were no railings and it was very common to have people fall off of the Boardwalk.
The first permanent Boardwalk was built in 1890. It was 24 feet wide, 10 feet high and about 4 miles long-and it did have railings on both sides. Today's Boardwalk is almost three times as wide, measuring 60 feet across in some locations. The boards wear out about every 12 years from the pounding of feet, weather and sand, so they have to be replaced. The present structure is seated on concrete and steel pilings and constructed of thousands of two-by-fours. The wood is Bethabara hardwood from Brazil and Longleaf Yellow Southern Pine.
The most popular "vehicles" on the Boardwalk today are the rolling chairs, a century-old Atlantic City tradition. Rolling chairs debuted on the Boardwalk in 1887. They were actually imported from the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876. At first they were rented to the physically challenged, but soon became so popular that everyone wanted a ride.
Another very popular vehicle on the Boardwalk is the bicycle. If you're taking a stroll in the early morning hours - especially in the summer -- watch out! Hundreds of bicyclists are drawn to the flat, easy-to-ride surface for a good workout. Bicycling is restricted to morning hours (6 a.m. to 10 a.m.) in Atlantic City. For bicycle rentals call Web Feet Watersports.
This walking tour begins at the North end of the Boardwalk at New Jersey Ave. and is approximately 2 miles in length.
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The Showboat offers a festive New Orleans motif. Owned by Harrah's Entertainment, the Showboat also houses a large House of Blues complex with a Southern-inspired restaurant, nightclub, show room and House of Blues-themed slot machines and poker room.
Just beyond Showboat, you'll find the Garden Pier, home to the Atlantic City Historical Museum and the Atlantic City Art Center. In 1913, the pier was an open-air theater and was named for the flower gardens laid out in its center. Today you can visit the museums every day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is no admission charge.
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A few blocks beyond the museums, you'll find the original site of Iron Pier. Opened in 1886, the Iron Pier later became the Heinz Pier. It was purchased by H.J. Heinz to promote his 57 varieties of pickles. At Heinz Pier there were free pickles and free pickle lapel pins for everyone. You can still get pickle pins at the Atlantic City Historical Museum.
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If you visited Virginia Avenue and the Boardwalk decades ago, you would have seen the unmistakable Mr. Peanut. This costumed character greeted visitors outside the store. The aroma of fresh roasted peanuts drew tourists inside. Mr. Peanut is now memorialized with a statue further south on the Boardwalk.
Virginia Avenue is also where you'll find Steel Pier, one of the best-known Atlantic City piers. It originally opened in 1898-the first one to be built on iron pilings and steel girders. In its heyday, it was home to entertainment and stunts, sometimes drawing as many as a million visitors each season. At one point, it demanded full evening dress and offered 16 hours of continuous entertainment for one admission. It hosted opera and vaudeville, big bands and news figures. Perhaps the best-known stunt was the High Diving Horse that jumped from 40 feet with a young woman on its back into a pool of water.
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Pennsylvania Avenue is the former site of Steeplechase Pier, bought by a Coney Island businessman. Opening in 1904, the pier rented out clown costumes for tourists to wear on rides. The pier also featured the largest electric sign in the world. The sign advertised Chesterfield cigarettes, using 27,000 light bulbs.
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Resorts Atlantic City was the first casino to open in Atlantic City in 1978. It is the former location of Chalfonte-Haddon Hall, an old Quaker-owned hotel that once refused to sell alcoholic drinks on its premises. Haddon Hall was used as a hospital during World War II. Many of the original Art Deco touches from the original structure remain intact, including the decorative work around the elevators.
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Tennessee Avenue was the site of the first successful amusement pier built by James R. Applegate. Opened in 1884, Applegate's Pier was 625 feet long with four decks. It had picnic areas, vaudeville concerts and a huge ice-water fountain that used up to 3,000 pounds of ice a day.
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On the corner of New York Avenue and the Boardwalk you will find Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Museum. Open all year, the museum features over 400 exhibits in 13 themed galleries that will amaze and entertain those of all ages.
On the block between Kentucky and New York Avenues, you'll notice there's a James' Salt Water Taffy store. The building actually houses the factory where James' and Fralinger's salt water taffy, fudge and macaroons are made, packaged and sent all over the world for distribution.
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Central Pier was erected in 1913. It was a well known home of commercial exhibits, including model home displays. It is now home to an amusement arcade and go-cart rides.
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A few blocks down from Indiana Avenue on Martin Luther King Blvd., you can visit the Civil Rights Garden at Carnegie Library. The only one of its kind in the Northeast, the Civil Rights Garden pays tribute to those who have championed civil rights causes. The garden features a one-of-a-kind sculpture by world-renowned artist Larry Kirkland. The curvilinear brick garden path recalls the journey from slavery to freedom of African Americans. Strategically placed unfinished columns are inscribed with "passionate voices" of the movement. The garden is open seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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The Claridge was once a grand hotel-one of the last to be built near the Boardwalk, and is now part of Bally's Atlantic City. Twenty stories high, it was completed in 1930. In the 1940s, the Claridge was Frank Sinatra's Atlantic City home, and home to other show business giants of that era.
Brighton Park is also the site for the New Jersey State Korean War Memorial. The memorial honors New Jerseyans who lost their lives in the Korean War. It consists of an upper plaza, just off the Boardwalk, with a bronze sculpture and a black granite wall of names. The lower plaza features a sculpture and an eternal flame.
Brighton Park also hosts concerts, art shows and flea markets during the year.
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If the name Park Place is familiar to you, it's probably because you know it from the game Monopoly. Monopoly got its start here in Atlantic City, where its creator Charles B. Darrow invented it in 1929. He used the names of the local streets. He chose Atlantic City because the town was known for its opulence, and he thought it might be a way for people to "escape" from their financial hardships during the Depression.
At this Park Place, you'll find Bally's Park Place which houses Bally's Wild Wild West Casino, Claridge Casino and Coyote Kate's Slot Parlor.
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A hundred years ago, you would have been standing here, between Ohio and Michigan Avenues, in front of a hotel known as the Marlborough-Blenheim. This hotel was the first Atlantic City hotel to offer hot and cold running saltwater and the first to have a private bath in every room. The hotel also was one of the first fireproof hotels in Atlantic City. It was constructed of reinforced concrete, a process supervised by the developer-Thomas Edison.
The Marlborough-Blenheim is long gone, and in its place you'll find Bally's Wild Wild West Casino, designed to resemble a western frontier town. If you look closely, you can spot the original Warner Theater and the Dennis Hotel, both Atlantic City landmarks, which have been incorporated into the current structure.
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Arkansas Ave was the home of Young's Million Dollar Pier, which opened in 1906. It was a place of great entertainment where performers like Harry Houdini appeared and the early Miss Americas were crowned.
Today Arkansas Avenue is the home of Caesars Atlantic City and The Pier at Caesars. Caesars Atlantic City Hotel and Casino is the gateway to the opulence of ancient Rome. Imported marble and flowing fountains decorate our four-story atrium, setting a majestic tone that defines every element of this resort.
While The Pier at Caesars, is a lavish shopping-dining-entertainment complex that features top name retailers, fine restaurants with a view of the ocean, an elegant wedding chapel, fountains and an hourly water-light-and-sound show at the very end of the structure.
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The Missouri Avenue beach is also known as Chicken Bone Beach. In the early 1900s, African Americans were socially restricted to the Missouri Avenue area. Thousands of African American families flocked to the shore with their chicken laden picnic hampers, giving the area the affectionate nickname, "Chicken Bone Beach." Major African American entertainers who were playing at Atlantic City's popular nightclubs joined them, including Sammy Davis Jr. and "Moms" Mabley. During the summer, the Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation hosts free jazz concerts at Kennedy Plaza (between Mississippi & Georgia Aves.)
Trump Plaza was built by Donald Trump and is one of three properties in town that bear his name - the others being the Trump Marina and the Trump Taj Mahal. This was the site of the first Ferris wheel built in 1872. The inventor was Isaac Newton Forrester. The Ferris wheel is incorrectly named for George Ferris who put up a similar wheel in 1894 at the Chicago Exposition.
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To the right, you'll see a building on the National Registry of Historic Places. It's known as Historic Boardwalk Hall and it was Atlantic City's original convention hall. Today, the city has a new Convention Center (which opened in 1997) just a few blocks from the Boardwalk.
Once known as the hall where the Miss America Pageant took place, Historic Boardwalk Hall is now Atlantic City's premier entertainment center, featuring concerts by such stars as Madonna, Barbara Streisand, and Britney Spears.
When it first opened in 1929, Boardwalk Hall was hailed as an engineering and architectural marvel. It was the largest freestanding building in the world. It did not use support columns to prop up its arched roof.
The building has seen a lot in time, from indoor horse races and helicopter rides to football games. In the 1930s, a semi-pro hockey team called the Atlantic City Seagulls played here. During World War II, the U.S. Army leased this property as a training facility. Tens of thousands of service men trained in Atlantic City. The hall served as a central place for exercise drills. It was the summertime home of the Ice Capades and the scene of Lyndon Johnson's 1964 presidential nomination.
Recently, the building went through a $90 million restoration that helped to recapture the great hall's magnificence. Renovations included the delicate preservation of the building's Roman Revival and Art Deco architecture. It was also updated with new seating, lighting effects and sound technology.
Across the Boardwalk is Kennedy Plaza, a tribute to late President John F. Kennedy. You can visit his bust there. Kennedy Plaza is the site of free outdoor concerts in the summer season, as well as Atlantic City's miniature golf course.
This is also where a statue of Mr. Peanut graces the Boardwalk. You'll find him relaxing on a bench, waiting for you to sit and take a photo with him.
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In the early part of the 20th century, you would also have seen the Ambassador Hotel in this area. Located between Stenton Place and Brighton Avenue, the Ambassador buzzed with excitement. Like many of the hotels of the time, people gathered to dance in the ballroom and drink in the bar.
Today this area is occupied by the Tropicana Casino and Resort. The Tropicana is not only a casino-but also the site that hosted many young comics before they became household names. Rosie O'Donnell, Tim Allen and Ray Romano have all performed at the Tropicana's Comedy Stop, which is now in its 21st year.
Inside the Tropicana you'll also find another Atlantic City icon, James' Salt Water Taffy. Another popular brand is Fralinger's. Salt water taffy is the candy that the city made famous. No one knows for sure the origin of the candy. A famous story says that in 1883, a taffy stand was swamped by a storm. The effect was a delicious candy that has entranced visitors since that time.
The Tropicana is linked by a skywalk over Pacific Avenue to The Quarter, an Old Havana-themed complex with an eclectic mix of shops, restaurants with cuisines from around the world, an Imax Theater and a variety of high-energy nightclubs.
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Formerly known as The Grand, the Hilton is now owned by Colony Capital, which also owns Resorts Atlantic City.
If we were here earlier in the last century, there would have been a huge structure just behind us-situated between Hartford and Albany Avenues. This was the President Hotel, one of the larger hotels at the time. It would cost you $5 for a room at any of the top 10 hotels in town in 1900.
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- The average high/low temperature: Spring 60/42; Summer 85/64; Fall 66/48; Winter 45/27.
- The Absecon Lighthouse is the tallest of the New Jersey lights. Visitors can climb its 228 steps for a spectacular view.
- Atlantic City's four miles of white sandy beaches are free.
- The world's first Boardwalk was built in Atlantic City in 1870.
- Salt water taffy originated in 1883 on the Boardwalk after a storm flooded a candy store.
- Steel Pier, once the world's premier amusement pier, opened in 1898.
- Rolling chairs debuted on the Boardwalk in 1887.
- The first paid Beach Patrol debuted in 1892.
- The term "airport" was first used in Atlantic City.
- The first Miss America was crowned in 1921.
- Charles Darrow developed the game of Monopoly in 1929 using the city's streets.
- Atlantic City's first casino, Resorts International, opened May 1978.
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