Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County,
New Jersey
, United
States
. Famous for its boardwalk, casino gambling,
sandy beaches, shopping centers, view of the Atlantic Ocean, and as
the inspiration for the board game Monopoly, Atlantic City is a resort
community located on Absecon Island
on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean
. As of 2008, the city has a population of
35,770, with 266,268 people living in the Atlantic City–Hammonton
metropolitan statistical area. Other municipalities
on the island are Ventnor City
, Margate City
, and Longport
. The main routes into Atlantic City are the
Black Horse Pike (
US 322/
40), White Horse Pike (
US 30) and the
Atlantic City Expressway. Atlantic
City borders Absecon, Brigantine, Pleasantville, Ventnor and West
Atlantic City (part of Egg Harbor Township).
Atlantic City was incorporated on May 1, 1854 by an act of the
New Jersey Legislature.
The new
city contained portions of Egg Harbor
Township
and Galloway Township
.
Atlantic City contains distinct
neighborhoods or districts. The communities are
known as: The North Inlet, The South Inlet, Bungalow Park, the
Marina District, Venice Park, Downtown (Midtown),
Ducktown, Chelsea, and Chelsea
Heights.
History
Atlantic City has always been a resort town. Its location in
South Jersey, hugging the Atlantic
Ocean between marshlands and islands, presented itself as prime
real estate for developers.
The city was incorporated in 1854, the same
year in which train service began, linking this remote parcel of
land with Philadelphia
. Atlantic City became a popular
beach destination because of its proximity to
Philadelphia.
The first
boardwalk was built in 1870,
along a portion of the beach to help hotel owners keep sand out of
their lobbies. The idea caught on, and the boardwalk was expanded
and modified several times in the following years. The historic
length of the boardwalk, before the
1944 hurricane, was about and
it extended from Atlantic City to Longport, through Ventnor and
Margate. Today, it is long and wide, reinforced with steel and
concrete. The combined length of the Atlantic City and Ventnor
boardwalks—the boardwalk now ends at the Ventnor/Margate border—is
approximately , currently the world's longest
boardwalk.
see also: Boardwalk Hall
Image:Atlantic city boardwalk1.jpg|Atlantic
City boardwalkImage:AtlanticCity1917StrandCocaCola.jpeg|Boardwalk
in 1917Image:Boardwalk-01.jpg|Boardwalk on a rainy
dayImage:Boardwalk-02.jpg|Boardwalk facing north
Image:Atlantic Ocean
Shore.jpg|Atlantic
Ocean shore in Atlantic City, New Jersey
Piers
Ocean Pier, the world's first oceanside amusement pier, was built
in Atlantic City in 1882.
Other famous piers included the Steel Pier
, opened in 1898, and which once billed itself as
"The Showplace of the Nation." It now finds itself opposite
Trump Taj Mahal and is used as an amusement pier.
The Million Dollar
Pier opened in 1906 and is now opposite Caesar's Casino and houses
the Pier
Shops at Caesars
. The Garden Pier once housed a movie
theater, and is now home to the Atlantic City Historical Society
and an Arts Center. Steeplechase Pier, strictly for amusements,
once existed just west of Steel Pier. Heinz Pier, located just east
of the Garden Pier, was famous for its Pickle Pins, but was
destroyed in the Hurricane of 1944.
Historic hotels
During the early part of the 20th century, Atlantic City went
through a radical building boom. Many of the modest boarding houses
that dotted the boardwalk were replaced with large hotels. Two of
the city’s most distinctive hotels were the Marlborough-Blenheim
Hotel and the
Traymore Hotel.
In 1903, Josiah White III bought a parcel of land near Ohio Avenue
and the boardwalk and built the
Queen Anne style Marlborough
House. The hotel was a hit and, in 1905–06, he chose to expand the
hotel and bought another parcel of land next door to his
Marlborough House. In an effort to make his new hotel a source of
conversation, White hired the architectural firm of Price and
McLanahan. The firm made use of
reinforced concrete, a new building
material invented by Jean-Louis Lambot in 1848 (Joseph Monier
received the patent in 1867). The hotel’s Spanish and Moorish
themes, capped off with its signature dome and chimneys,
represented a step forward from other hotels that had a classically
designed influence. White named the new hotel the Blenheim and
merged the two hotels into the Marlborough-Blenheim.
Bally's Atlantic City was later
constructed at this location.
The Traymore Hotel was located at the corner of Illinois Avenue and
the boardwalk. Begun in 1879 as a small boarding house, the hotel
grew through a series of uncoordinated expansions. By 1914, the
hotel’s owner, Daniel White, taking a hint from the
Marlborough-Blenheim, commissioned the firm of Price and McLanahan
to build an even bigger hotel. Sixteen stories high, the tan brick
and gold-capped hotel would become one of the city’s best-known
landmarks. The hotel made use of ocean-facing hotel rooms by
jutting its wings farther from the main portion of the hotel along
Pacific Avenue.
One by one, additional large hotels were constructed along the
boardwalk, including the Brighton, Chelsea, Shelburne, Ambassador,
Ritz Carlton, Mayflower, Madison House, and the Breakers. The
Quaker-owned Chalfonte House, opened in 1868, and Haddon House,
opened in 1869, flanked North Carolina Avenue at the beach end.
Their original wood-frame structures would be enlarged, and even
moved closer to the beach, over the years. The modern Chalfonte
Hotel, eight stories tall, opened in 1904. The modern Haddon Hall
was built in stages and was completed in 1929, at eleven stories.
By this time, they were under the same ownership and merged into
the
Chalfonte-Haddon Hall
Hotel, becoming the city's largest hotel with nearly 1,000
rooms. By 1930, the Claridge, the city's last large hotel before
the casinos, opened its doors. The 400-room Claridge was built by a
partnership that included renowned Philadelphia contractor
John McShain. At 24 stories, it would become
known as the "Skyscraper By The Sea."
1964 Democratic National Convention
The city hosted the
1964 Democratic National
Convention which nominated
Lyndon
Johnson for President and
Hubert
Humphrey as Vice President. The ticket won easily that
November. The convention and the press coverage it generated,
however, cast a harsh light on Atlantic City, which by then was in
the midst of a long period of economic decline. Many felt that the
friendship between Johnson and the
Governor of New Jersey at that time,
Richard J. Hughes, led Atlantic City to host the
Democratic Convention.
Decline and resurgence
Like many older east coast cities after
World War II, Atlantic City became plagued with
poverty,
crime, and
disinvestment by the
middle class in the mid to late 20th century.
The neighborhood known as the "Inlet" became particularly
impoverished. The reasons for the resort's decline were
multi-layered. The automobile became available to many Americans
after the war. Atlantic City had initially relied upon visitors
coming by train and staying for a couple of weeks. The car allowed
them to come and go as they pleased, and many people would spend
only a few days, rather than weeks. Also, the advent of suburbia
played a huge role. With many families moving to their own private
houses, luxuries such as home air conditioning and swimming pools
diminished their interest in flocking to the beach during the hot
summer. Perhaps the biggest factor in the decline in Atlantic
City's popularity came from cheap, fast jet service to other
premiere resorts.
Places such as Miami Beach
and Nassau, Bahamas
superseded Atlantic City as favored vacation
spots.
By the late 1960s, many of the resort's great hotels, which were
suffering from embarrassing vacancy rates, were either closed,
converted to cheap apartments, or converted to nursing home
facilities. Prior to and during the advent of legalized
gaming, many of these hotels were demolished. The
Breakers, the Chelsea, the Brighton, the Shelburne, the Mayflower,
the Traymore, and the Marlborough Blenheim were demolished in the
1970s and 1980s. Of all the pre-casino resorts that bordered the
boardwalk, only the Claridge, the Dennis (now part of Bally's Park
Place) the Ritz Carlton and the Haddon Hall (now Resorts) survive
to this day. The old Ambassador Hotel was extensively renovated to
become the Tropicana Hotel and Casino, removing the Ambassador's
distinctive brick facade, and replacing it with a more modern one.
Smaller hotels off the boardwalk also survived.
In an
effort at revitalizing the city, New Jersey
voters in 1976 approved casino gambling for Atlantic City; this came after a
1974 referendum on legalized gambling failed to pass.
The
Chalfonte-Haddon Hall
Hotel was converted into the Resorts International; it was the
first legal casino in the eastern United States when it opened on May 26, 1978. Other
casinos were soon added along the Boardwalk and later in the marina
district for a total of eleven today. The introduction of gambling
did not, however, quickly eliminate many of the urban problems that
plagued Atlantic City. Many have argued that it only served to
magnify those problems, as evidenced in the stark contrast between
tourism-intensive areas and the adjacent impoverished working-class
neighborhoods.
In addition, Atlantic City has played
second-fiddle to Las Vegas, Nevada
, as a gambling mecca in the United States, although
in the late 1970s and 1980s, when Las Vegas was experiencing a
massive drop in tourism due to crime, particularly the Mafia's role, and other economic factors, Atlantic
City was favored over Las Vegas. The rise of
Mike Tyson in boxing, having most of his fights
in Atlantic City in the '80s, also helped Atlantic City's
popularity.
On July 3, 2003, Atlantic City's newest
casino, The
Borgata
, opened with much success. Another major
attraction is the oldest remaining
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Odditorium in the world.
A 75 percent smoking ban imposed by Atlantic City's City Council
went into effect on April 15, 2007, limiting smoking to no more
than 25 percent of the casino floor. Casino operators, especially
Donald Trump have claimed that the ban
places Atlantic City casinos at a competitive disadvantage with
casinos in neighboring states and is leading to a revenue
decline.
Atlantic
City is home to New
Jersey's first
wind farm. The Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm
consists of five 1.5 megawatt turbine towers, each
almost high.
Gambling halted for the first time since the beginning of 24 hour
gaming on July 5, 2006, at 8.00 am, during the
2006 New Jersey State
Government Shutdown mandated by the state constitution when the
legislature failed to present a budget. The casinos generally
remained open for entertainment and hotel services, but ceased
gambling functions due to the absence of state regulators. The
casinos resumed gambling functions at 7:00 p.m. on July 8,
2006.
From 2005 to 2006, Atlantic City had the highest percentage
increase (25.9 percent) in average home value in the United
States.
Geography
Atlantic City is located at .
Atlantic
City is located on long Absecon Island, along with Ventnor City, Margate City and Longport to the southeast.
The city has a total area, according to the
United States Census Bureau, of
, of which, of it is land and of it (34.58%) is water.
Climate
Atlantic City has a
humid
subtropical climate and an average of 205 sunshine days
annually.
Summers are typically warm and humid with average high temperatures
of and lows of , however in the summer, Atlantic City gets a sea
breeze off the ocean that makes temperature stay slightly cooler
than inland areas. Temperatures exceed an average of 18 days a year
in the summer and drop down to for 10 days a year in the
winter.Winters are cold with average high temperatures of and lows
of . Spring and autumn are erratic, although they are usually mild
with low humidity.
Annual precipitation is which is fairly spread throughout the year.
Due to its close proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and its location
in South Jersey, Atlantic City receives less snow than a good
portion of the rest of New Jersey. The city averages only of
snowfall each winter. It is not uncommon for rain to fall in
Atlantic City while the northern and western parts of the state are
receiving snow.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 40,517
people, 15,848 households, and 8,700 families residing in the city.
The
population density was
3,569.8 people per square mile (1,378.3/km
2). There were
20,219 housing units at an average density of 1,781.4/sq mi
(687.8/km
2). The racial makeup of the city was 44.16%
Black or
African American, 26.68%
White, 0.48%
Native American, 10.40%
Asian, 0.06%
Pacific Islander, 13.76% from
other races, and 4.47%
from two or more races. 24.95% of the population were
Hispanic or
Latino of any race. 19.44% of the
population were non-Hispanic whites.
There were 15,848 households out of which 27.7% had children under
the age of 18 living with them, 24.8% were
married couples living together, 23.2% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 45.1% were non-families.
37.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.4% had
someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average
household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.26.
In the city the population was spread out with 25.7% under the age
of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 31.0% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to
64, and 14.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was
35 years. For every 100 females there were 96.1 males. For every
100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.2 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $26,969, and the
median income for a family was $31,997. Males had a median income
of $25,471 versus $23,863 for females. The
per capita income for the city was
$15,402. About 19.1% of families and 23.6% of the population were
below the
poverty line, including 29.1%
of those under age 18 and 18.9% of those age 65 or over.
Fire Department
Atlantic City is protected 24/7 by the professional firefighters of
the Atlantic City Fire and Rescue Department. The Department
operates out of six fire stations located throughout the city and
operates a fire apparatus fleet of seven engines, three ladders,
and one rescue.
Government
Local government
Atlantic City is governed under the
Faulkner Act system of
municipal government. The current
Mayor is
Lorenzo
Langford.
The City Council is the governing body of Atlantic City. Members of
Council are elected to serve for a term of four years. There are
nine Councilmembers, one from each of six wards and three serving
at-large. The City Council exercises the legislative power of the
municipality for the purpose of holding Council meetings to
introduce ordinances and resolutions to regulate City government.
In addition, Councilmembers review budgets submitted by the Mayor;
provide for an annual audit of the City’s accounts and financial
transactions; organize standing committees and hold public hearings
to address important issues which impact Atlantic City.
Mayoral disappearance and resignation
Following questions about false claims he had made about his
military record, Mayor
Bob Levy left City Hall in September 2007 in a city-owned
vehicle for an unknown destination.
After a 13 day absence, his lawyer
revealed that Levy was in Carrier Clinic
, a rehabilitation hospital. Levy resigned in
October 2007 and then-Council President William Marsh assumed the
office of Mayor and served the six-week remainder of his
term.
Federal, state and county representation
Atlantic City is part of New Jersey's
The
New Jersey
Casino Control Commission is headquartered in the Arcade
Building at Tennessee Avenue and Boardwalk in Atlantic City.
Education
The
Atlantic City School
District serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth
grades. Schools in the district (with 2005-06 enrollment data from
the
National
Center for Education Statistics) are
Brighton Avenue
School for preschool (72 students),eight K-8 elementary schools
—Chelsea Heights School (383),Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School
Complex (613),New Jersey Avenue School (403),New York Avenue School
(587),Richmond Avenue School (378),Sovereign Avenue School
(792),Texas Avenue School (411) andUptown School Complex (732)
—
Atlantic
City High School
for grades 9-12 (2,574), along withVenice
Park School (35) andViking Academy.
Students
from Brigantine
, Longport, Margate City and Ventnor City attend Atlantic City High School as part of
sending/receiving
relationships with the respective school
districts.
Our Lady
Star of the Sea Regional School is a
Catholic elementary school, operated under
the jurisdiction of the
Diocese of Camden.
Nearby
colleges in the area include Atlantic
Cape Community College
and Richard
Stockton College of New Jersey
.
Casino resorts
- 1 Claridge
Tower
and the Wild West Casino are considered part of
Bally's.
Planned casino hotels
- Morgan Stanley
purchased directly north of the Showboat Atlantic City
Hotel and Casino for a $2 billion-plus resort
casino. Revel
Entertainment Group was named as the project's
developer and exterior construction is in progress. The resort will
feature up to 2 hotel towers, Atlantic City's first Vegas-style
wedding chapel and more. On Thursday, January 29, 2009, Revel
Entertainment announced that it would delay interior construction
due to the poor state of the economy.
Delayed casino hotels
- Pinnacle Entertainment
purchased the Sands
Atlantic City
, at the time Atlantic City's smallest casino, and
permanently closed it on November 11, 2006 at 6:00 AM. The
resort was demolished in a dramatic, Las-Vegas styled implosion
which took place on Thursday, October 18, 2007. The company
intended to replace it with a $1.5–2 billion casino resort on 18
contiguous oceanfront acres, which was anticipated to open by 2011.
Harsh economic times have caused the company to delay construction
indefinitely.
- AC Gateway LLC, a development group headed by former Park Place Entertainment CEO
Wallace Barr and former Casino Reinvestment
Development Authority Executive Director Curtis Bashaw, planned
to build a US$1.5 to $2 billion casino, hotel and entertainment
complex to be known as Atlantic Beach Resort &
Casino. The complex was to be constructed on land
south of the Atlantic
City Hilton
that was recently purchased from Hilton's parent
company, Colony Capital.
The tract
included the site of the former Atlantic
City High School and the planned but failed Dunes
casino.
Sports
Two
former teams, Atlantic
City Boardwalk Bullies of the ECHL, and the
Atlantic City CardSharks of
the NIFL played at
Boardwalk
Hall. Another team, Atlantic City Surf of the Can-Am
League, played at Bernie Robbins Stadium
.
On
November 16, 2006, Hal Handel, CEO of Greenwood Racing, announced
that the Atlantic City Race Course
would increase live racing dates from four days per
year, to up to 20 days per year. www.saveacrc.com has
been actively involved in expanding racing at the Atlantic City
Race Course and created the movement to bring full time racing back
to ACRC in 2005.
Media outlets
Newspapers and magazines
- See also: Newspapers in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
Radio stations
Atlantic City's radio market is ranked #139 in the nation.
WAYV 95.1 FM - Top 40
WTTH
96.1 FM -
Urban AC (The Touch)
WFPG
96.9 FM -
AC (Lite Rock 96.9)
WENJ
97.3 FM -
ESPN Radio/Sports
WTKU 98.3 FM - Oldies (Kool 98.3)
WZBZ 99.3 FM - Rhythmic (Kiss FM)
WZXL 100.7 FM - Rock (The Rock Station)
WJSE 102.7 FM - Alternative
WMGM 103.7 FM - Classic Rock (The
Shark)
WSJO 104.9 FM - Hot AC (Sojo 104.9)
WPUR 107.3 FM - Country (Cat Country
107.3)
WWJZ
640 AM -
Kids (Radio Disney)
WMID 1340 AM - Oldies
WOND
1400 AM -
News/Talk
WENJ 1450 AM - ESPN Radio/Sports
WTAA
1490 AM -
Spanish
Television stations
Transportation
Rail and bus
The Atlantic City Convention Center is
adjacent to the Atlantic City Rail Terminal
Atlantic City is connected to other cities in several ways.
New Jersey Transit's
Atlantic City Line runs from
Philadelphia
and several smaller South Jersey communities
directly to the Atlantic City Rail Terminal
at the Atlantic
City Convention Center
. Within the city, public transportation is
provided by
New Jersey
Transit along seven routes, and by the
Atlantic City Jitney
Association (ACJA) on another four fixed-route lines and on
shuttles to and from the rail terminal.
On June
20, 2006, the board of New Jersey Transit approved a three-year
trial of express train service between New York
Penn Station
and the Atlantic City Rail Terminal.
The
approximate travel time is 2½ hours with a stop at Newark
's Penn Station and is
part of the Casinos' multi-million dollar investments in Atlantic
City. Most of the funding for the new transit line
is provided by Harrah's
Entertainment (owners of both Harrah's Atlantic City
and Caesars Atlantic City
) and the Borgata. The line, known as ACES (
Atlantic City Express
Service), began service on February 6, 2009.
The
Atlantic City Bus
Terminal is the home to local, intrastate and interstate bus
companies including New Jersey Transit and
Greyhound bus lines.
The Greyhound Lucky
Streak Express offers service to Atlantic City from New York City
, Philadelphia, Baltimore
and Washington, D.C.
.
Highways
Access to Atlantic City by car is available via the
Atlantic City Expressway,
US 30 (commonly known as the White Horse
Pike), and
US
40/
322 (commonly known as the
Black Horse Pike). Atlantic City
has an abundance of taxi cabs and a local
jitney providing continuous service to and from
the casinos and the rest of the city.
Airline service
Commercial airlines serve Atlantic City via
Atlantic City International
Airport
, located northwest of the city in Egg Harbor
Township. Many travelers also fly into Philadelphia
International Airport
or Newark Liberty International
Airport
, where there are wider selections of carriers from
which to choose. The historic downtown Bader Field
airport is now permanently closed and plans are in
the works to redevelop the land.
AirTran Airways began daily service
between Atlantic City, NJ (ACY) and Atlanta, GA (ATL) on June 11,
2009.
Shopping
Shopping malls in casino resorts
Notable residents
Notable current and former residents of Atlantic City include:
- Jack Abramoff (born 1959), a
former American political lobbyist who was
embroiled in high-profile political scandals. Abramoff was born in
Atlantic City and lived there until the age of ten.
- Rosalind Cash (1938–1995), actress
nominated for an Emmy Award for her work
on the Public Broadcasting
Service production of Go Tell It on the Mountain.
- Karen S. Davis (born 1955), photographer and author of
Santa Anita Morning Rhapsody, the first art book
documenting morning thoroughbred racetrack training; also noted
musician, performer, editor, and former Thomson Organization journalist. Davis
was born in Atlantic city and lived in the area 17 years.
- Chris Ford (born 1949), former head
coach of the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Clippers, and the Philadelphia 76ers.
- John J. Gardner (1845–1921) represented New Jersey's 2nd
congressional district from 1885 to 1893, and was mayor of
Atlantic City for most of 1868–1875.
- Milton W. Glenn (1903–1967), represented New Jersey's 2nd
congressional district from 1957–1965.
- William Green
(born 1979), running back who currently
is a free agent of the NFL.
- Pete Hunter (born 1980), cornerback for the NFL's
Seattle Seahawks. A fifth-round
pick in 2002.
- Candy Jones (1925–1990), fashion model, writer
and radio talk show host.
- Allan Kaprow (1927–2006), pioneer
in establishing the concepts of performance art, painter, influenced
Fluxus.
- John P. O'Neill (1952–2001), FBI Terrorist
Specialist, Director of Security World Trade Center
, died in the September 11th, 2001
terrorist attacks.
- Chris Pallies (born 1957),
professional wrestler known
widely by his stage name King Kong
Bundy.
- Alfredo Silipigni (1932–2006),
conductor and founder of the New
Jersey State Opera.
- George
Armistead Smathers (November 14, 1913 – January 20, 2007),
Former United States Senator
from the state of Florida
- Rex David "Dave"
Thomas (1932–2002), founder of Wendy's
fast-food restaurant, was born in Atlantic City.
- Jim Whelan (born 1948), member of the
General Assembly who
represents the 2nd
legislative district. Whelan was Mayor of Atlantic City from
1990–2001.
References
External links
Atlantic City (NBC)
Atlantic City (ShopNBC)
Atlantic City (TBN)
Atlantic City (Telemundo)
, also called "The Walk", which is an outdoor outlet
shopping center.
in Egg Harbor Township
in Mays Landing
.
, a shopping center on a pier across from Caesars
Atlantic City
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