Atlantic City

Atlantic City, resort city, Atlantic county, southeastern New Jersey, U.S., on the Atlantic Ocean. It lies on low, narrow, sandy, 10-mile- (16-km-) long Absecon Island, which is separated from the mainland by a narrow strait and several miles of meadows partly covered with water at high tide. The area was inhabited by Delaware Indians before English settlers arrived in the late 1670s. Development of the island as a summer resort was first envisioned by physician Jonathan Pitney, who arrived about 1820 and wanted to establish a health resort. He later headed a group that persuaded the Camden and Atlantic Railroad to make the place its eastern terminus. Its success spurred construction of another line, the Narrow Gauge Railroad, in 1877.


Atlantic City’s mild winter climate, tempered by the Gulf Stream, made it a popular resort. Its famous Boardwalk, initially 8 feet (2 metres) wide and 1 mile (1.6 km) long, was built in 1870; it was later extended to a width of 60 feet (18 metres) and a length of 5 miles (8 km). Other innovations enhancing the resort’s reputation included the rolling chair (1884), in which guests were wheeled about, the introduction from Germany of the picture postcard (1895), and saltwater taffy. Amusement piers, jutting from the Boardwalk into the ocean, brought a carnival atmosphere with their vendors, shows, and exhibits. The largest, Steel Pier, is 2,300 feet (700 metres) long. The construction of Convention Hall (1929, new wing completed in 1972), with its 41,000-seat auditorium, made Atlantic City a popular convention site. The Miss America Pageant, held there annually in September, was established in 1921, discontinued in 1928, and revived in 1935.




Atlantic City’s resort trade declined in the decades following World War II. In hopes of reviving the city’s stagnating economy, a statewide referendum legalizing gambling in Atlantic City was passed in 1976. As a consequence, the first legal gambling casino in the United States located outside the state of Nevada opened on the Boardwalk in May 1978. The development of gambling resorts provided an influx of jobs and money, but much of Atlantic City beyond the Boardwalk remained blighted and impoverished.


Tourism remains the mainstay of the economy. The city also is a trade and shipping centre for agricultural products and seafood and has light manufacturing (textiles, candy, glassware, and china). Absecon Lighthouse State Historic Site is nearby; the 167-foot (51-metre) lighthouse was in service from 1857 to 1933. The Historic Towne of Smithville, 6 miles (10 km) north, has restored 18th- and 19th-century buildings including a general store, a gristmill, and an inn. Greater Atlantic City embraces the down-beach communities of Ventnor, Margate, and Longport and the mainland communities of Absecon, Pleasantville, Northfield, Linwood, and Somers Point. On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy made landfall at the New Jersey shore, causing extensive damage; in Atlantic City, it destroyed large portions of the Boardwalk, severely eroded the beach, and inundated some four-fifths of the city. Inc. 1854. Pop. (2000) 40,517; Atlantic City–Hammonton Metro Area, 252,552; (2010) 39,558; Atlantic City–Hammonton Metro Area, 274,549.

New Jersey

Although it has major social, economic, and political force in its own right, New Jersey is sometimes looked upon as a stepchild among the heavily industrialized and populated states along the Eastern Seaboard. New Jersey is one of the smallest states in area, but it is highly urbanized and has one of the country’s highest population densities. Hundreds of thousands of its citizens commute to New York and Pennsylvania. New Jersey’s transportation system is one of the busiest and most extensive in the world, and it weaves the state into the fabric of the region by funneling goods and people to New York City and other points north and to Philadelphia and points south. For hundreds of thousands of visitors it offers long stretches of fine beaches along the Atlantic Ocean, and the resort town of Atlantic City may be better known than the state itself.




Above all, New Jersey is rife with contradiction and anomaly. Its people fiercely fight off attempts of state government to end home rule by powerful municipal administrations. While the state has produced some of the most able and respected U.S. governors, corruption has often played a part in its local politics, and it has achieved notoriety as a major locus of organized crime.


New Jersey is called the Garden State because it became famous in the 18th century for the fertility of its land. It is now also among the most urbanized and crowded of states. The urban density of its northeast contrasts sharply, however, with the rugged hills of the northwest, the enormous stretches of pine forest in the southeast (the Pine Barrens), and the rolling and lush horse country in the south-central part of the state. New Jersey is an important industrial centre, but it has paid the price in environmental pollution, in dirt and noise, and in congested roads and slums. In sum, New Jersey is a curious amalgam of urban and rural, poor and wealthy, progressive and conservative, parochial and cosmopolitan. Indeed, it is one of the most diverse states in the union. Area 7,812 square miles (20,233 square km). Population (2010) 8,791,894; (2012 est.) 8,864,590.

People

Population composition

New Jersey’s population reflects the immigration patterns of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Germans and Slavs, Russian and European Jews, Irish, and Italians. Those categorized as white (i.e., generally of European origin) constitute more than two-thirds of the population. New Jersey was a prime destination for the waves of African Americans who left the South during and after World War II; more than one-tenth of the state’s total population is made up of African Americans. There is also a sizable Hispanic population, the largest subgroups of which are Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and Cubans. In the late 20th century, immigrant groups began to grow even more diverse and included South Asians, Portuguese, different Latin American groups, and others.

Italian Americans are the state’s largest ethnic group. They are the predominant white bloc in the cities, although the cities also contain sizable Polish, Hungarian, and other eastern European groups. Italian Americans and African Americans dominate the political and cultural life of the cities—a situation that at times has brought the two groups into competition and conflict.

Climate

The northwest experiences relatively cold winters, with average January temperatures below 28 °F (−2 °C). Relatively mild conditions prevail in the south, with average winter temperatures above freezing. Summers are relatively hot throughout the state, with averages for July ranging from about 70 °F (21 °C) in the northwest to above 76 °F (24 °C) in the southwest. Moist conditions prevail, with seasonally well-distributed precipitation averaging from 44 inches to more than 52 inches (1,120 to 1,320 mm).