Qualla: Atlantic City, New Jersey

Atlantic City, New Jersey: Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Shinya Suzuki, CC BY 2.0. Most American cities can claim one cultural invention. Atlantic City can claim seven. The boardwalk - the first in the world - opened here in 1870. Salt water taffy was popularized here in the 1880s. The Miss America pageant began here in 1921. The street names from the city's 1854 grid became the squares on the Monopoly board in 1935. The rolling chair, the diving horse, the dance marathon, the East Coast convention culture - all of it traces back to a city built on a windswept barrier island where, before the railroad arrived in 1854, there were three families and a lot of mosquitoes. Atlantic City was a deliberate American invention. It was also, eventually, the place that taught the country what could go wrong when entertainment, vice, and political corruption ran the same town.

Image: Shinya Suzuki | CC BY 2.0

Atlantic City, New Jersey: Built by a Railroad

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit W. Reichmann, CC BY-SA 3.0. Atlantic City was not a town that grew gradually. It was assembled in 1854 by a railroad. Dr. Jonathan Pitney, a local physician, had been advocating for years that the long, narrow Absecon Island would make a perfect health resort - the sea air, the south wind, the unbroken Atla...

Image: W. Reichmann | CC BY-SA 3.0

Atlantic City, New Jersey: Boardwalk Empire

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Creator:Issued by William S. Kimball & Company, CC0. By the early twentieth century Atlantic City had become something close to America's national vice capital. Prohibition was passed in 1919 and ignored locally; the local political boss, Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, ran the city through the 1920s as an open city for gambling, liquor, an...

Image: Creator:Issued by William S. Kimball & Company | CC0

Atlantic City, New Jersey: The Long Decline

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Richard Weil, CC0. After World War II, Atlantic City declined faster than almost any other American resort city. Air travel made Florida and the Caribbean more attractive. Air conditioning made northern summers tolerable, reducing the seaside demand. The 1964 Democratic National Convention, held at...

Image: Richard Weil | CC0

Atlantic City, New Jersey: Resorts International and the Casino Boom

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bruce Emmerling, CC BY-SA 4.0. On May 26, 1978, Resorts International Hotel and Casino opened as the first legal East Coast casino. The lines on opening day stretched around the block. Resorts made $134 million in its first year - more than any Las Vegas casino. A wave of construction followed: Caesars in 1979...

Image: Bruce Emmerling | CC BY-SA 4.0

Atlantic City, New Jersey: Sandy, Bankruptcy, and What Comes Next

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hij802, CC BY-SA 4.0. Hurricane Sandy made landfall just south of Atlantic City on October 29, 2012. The boardwalk damage was much-discussed but mostly limited to the northern residential section already slated for demolition. The bigger damage was economic. The same year, Pennsylvania casino gambling...

Image: Hij802 | CC BY-SA 4.0