If railroad conductor Andrew Boardman — who is credited with coming up with the concept of the first boardwalk, in 1870 — had a different surname, would these wooden walkways that have become so popular at the Jersey Shore be called something different?
There’s no concrete answer.
But along with hotelier Jacob Keim, Boardman constructed the original walk along the Atlantic City oceanfront to help keep the sand off the feet of train passengers boarding the rails back to the city and of hotel guests strolling off the beach and into the carpeted lobbies of the grand hostelries.
The earliest incarnation was a simple affair made of hammered-together planks, no more than eight feet wide, that was portable enough to be lifted and stowed for the winter.
Over time, the temporary structure became permanent along Atlantic City’s beachfront. And by the resort’s gilded age in the 1890s, the Boardwalk had become the centerpiece of “America’s Playground,” offering visitors quirky attractions and top-shelf shopping and entertainment.
Atlantic City’s Boardwalk was so popular it spawned a wave of such promenades up and down the East Coast. Eventually, the trend spread west to beach towns like Santa Cruz, California. In the middle of the country, landlocked resorts jumped on the boardwalk bandwagon with “riverwalks.”
But whatever you want to call it, wherever there is a boardwalk, there is a melange of sights, sounds, and smells unique to the character of a particular locale — where a beach town seems to metaphorically wear its heart on its sleeve. And 79 percent of visitors to the Jersey Shore say the boardwalk is the second-most popular draw, after the beaches, said Diane Wieland, director of the Cape May County tourism department.
Brian J. Tyrrell, associate professor of hospitality and tourism management at Stockton University and research fellow at the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality, and Tourism, said the boardwalks on the southern end of the Jersey Shore — Atlantic City, Ocean City, and Wildwood — were important economic engines in those resorts.
The three boardwalks enhance the “global image and appeal they present” as a specific destination. Each has a unique appeal to vacationers based on amusements, restaurants, clubs, games, and other attractions, he said.
“And what towns invest in maintaining and reinvesting in those boardwalks is significant to the ultimate economic payoff,” Tyrrell said.
But it may be simple sentimentality that makes boardwalks so beloved.
Author James Lilliefors wrote in America’s Boardwalks: From Coney Island to California: “The boardwalk bewitches us with lost scents and sounds, reminders of why we went in the first place: to belong, to escape, to watch the parade, to feast, to fall in love.”
Atlantic City. The granddaddy of all boardwalks, the Atlantic City Boardwalk is a four-mile-long promenade stretching from the Absecon Inlet to the Ventnor City limit. It’s a Boardwalk with a skyline of casino hotels and has been home to a continuous stream of entertainment piers and attractions since it opened on June 26, 1870. Although several of the original piers are gone or rebranded as other attractions, the Steel Pier remains a top attraction along with Boardwalk Hall and Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum. Rolling chairs are still popular.
No matter the transition the city is undergoing with four casino closings, the urban-mixed-with-beachy culture of the Boardwalk has remained steadfast.
In 2014, the state Casino Reinvestment Development Authority mounted a $34 million “Clean and Safe” initiative for improvements, including new lighting, tourism ambassadors, well-landscaped parks, and storefront facade improvements.
The Steel Pier is undergoing a $10 million overhaul to bring new rides, additional food and beverage outlets, and the East Coast’s largest observation wheel to the pier.
This summer, the Steel Pier will also offer the only helicopter tour of the Shore. A basic tour that lasts less than a half-hour and swoops along the Boardwalk costs $49 per person.
“The Atlantic City Boardwalk is the great equalizer,” said Mayor Don Guardian, who before being elected to the highest local office was executive director of the Atlantic City Special Improvement District. “It’s for everyone … it’s America’s Boardwalk.”
Ocean City. It really is all about tradition along the 21/2-mile stretch that is the Ocean City Boardwalk. It’s not uncommon to find popcorn shops, custard stands, arcades, children’s amusements, and clothing stores that have been operated by the same families for 50, 75, 85 years, said Michele Gillian, executive director of the Greater Ocean City Chamber of Commerce. The boardwalk may be exactly the way you remember it as a kid — and thanks to staples like Manco &Manco pizza and Kohr Bros. custard, it even tastes the same.
“I think that’s what makes Ocean City’s boardwalk so unique. That it stays the same and the same families have been coming here for generations,” Gillian said. “There may be a new eatery or two every year or a couple of new kiddie rides, but the fact that it stays so traditional is what brings people back year after year. People want it to stay the same. They want to find that same Ferris wheel they went on as a kid and bring their own kids.”
The boardwalk was first built here in 1880, and when a catastrophic fire destroyed most of the original structure in 1927, town fathers rebuilt it 300 feet closer to the ocean upon concrete pilings. The Ocean City Music Pier, a unique entertainment auditorium opened in 1928, provides a home for a variety of shows and concerts throughout the year. Gillian’s husband’s family has been operating Gillian’s Wonderland Pier, a children’s amusement ride center, for 85 years, she said. Other popular amusement sites include Playland and Castaway Cove, which have been operating nearly as long.
Wildwood. Often making the travel Top 10 lists and Trip Advisor stats, the Wildwood Boardwalk remains a destination for travelers seeking what is perhaps the top boardwalk amusement experience. Stretching 21/2 miles through North Wildwood, Wildwood, and Wildwood Crest along an extraordinarily wide beachfront, it includes three large amusement parks, three water parks, and an endless array of games of chance and the hawkers who go with them.
But the Wildwood Boardwalk, which some contend is more honky-tonk than highly evolved kitsch, has sparked controversy in recent years, as the town fathers have tried to clean up the image by insisting patrons pull up their pants. An ordinance passed two years ago threatens violators with $200 fines for making the fashion choice of indulging in the “sagging” look of wearing pants so loose that underwear shows.
“On any given Saturday night in the summer, the sights and sounds of the Wildwood boardwalk provide pure sensory overload … the neon, the sounds of the people, the excitement of the rides. It’s all here, and the atmosphere is unlike anything else,” contends Ben Rose, director of marketing and public relations for the Greater Wildwood Tourism Authority. “This has never been a bland, homogenized place.”
Wildwood’s boardwalk kitsch is so unique Disney even used some of its ambience and hawker patois as a template when it created its boardwalk-theme resort area at Disney World 25 years ago.
New this year is Kong. Originally an iconic gorilla-theme amusement ride on Morey’s Surfside Pier, Kong has been remade as a smoke- and fog-snorting ape presiding over eight vintage shark-theme ride vehicles that duck and dive as high as 21/2 stories around it. The thrill ride will illuminate up the night sky with a rotating light atop a centerpiece lighthouse and will be enhanced by LED lighting outlining each ride vehicle.
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