Atlantic City Boardwalk: America’s Oldest, Survived Prohibition, the Depression, and the Atlantic Ocean

The boardwalk was built in 1870 to solve a specific problem: hotel guests were tracking sand from the beach into the lobby of the United States Hotel, and the management was tired of it. The solution was a temporary wooden walkway connecting the hotels to the shore. The “temporary” qualifier has lasted 156 years. The boardwalk is now four miles long, built from hardwood over steel supports, wide enough for the rolling chairs that have carried people along it since 1887, and still the defining feature of a city that has survived casinos, hurricanes, bankruptcies, and at least three complete reinventions.

Atlantic City is undergoing its latest reinvention right now. A $100 million renovation of Steel Pier is reshaping the waterfront end of the boardwalk with new rides and the new Crazy Crab roller coaster. A $26 million boardwalk reinvestment project has completed infrastructure upgrades along the main stretch. Ocean Casino Resort has put more than $50 million into property-wide improvements. The city that was gasping a decade ago is putting serious money into the product.

The Boardwalk Itself

The central stretch between New York and Arkansas Avenues is where most of the action concentrates. Walk it at any hour; it operates differently at 8am (locals on bicycles, hotel workers, beach fishermen) than at 10pm (casinos lit, bars open, rolling chairs moving at a leisurely pace). The chairs, covered wicker vehicles pushed by attendants for hire, are an anachronism that has somehow survived everything the 20th century threw at the city.

The view east is always the same and never boring: the Atlantic Ocean, wide and grey-green, waves arriving in reliable sets, people in the surf if the weather cooperates.

Steel Pier

Steel Pier has stood at the Virginia Avenue end since 1898. It has hosted Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, and the famous diving horse act that ran from the 1920s to the 1970s (a horse would gallop down a ramp and jump into a tank of water, with a rider on its back; it ran weekly for decades). The current version is an amusement pier in renovation, with the Crazy Crab coaster added in 2025 and new family attractions being phased in. Entry to the pier is free; rides are individually ticketed.

Absecon Lighthouse

Three blocks from the boardwalk at Pacific and Rhode Island Avenues, Absecon Lighthouse is the tallest in New Jersey and the third tallest in the United States. It was built in 1857 and operated until 1933. The 228-step climb takes you to views of the city, the back bay marshlands, and the open ocean that give Atlantic City’s geography a clarity the boardwalk level does not. The adjacent keeper’s house is a museum of 19th-century lighthouse life.

Boardwalk Hall

Boardwalk Hall at Mississippi Avenue is a National Historic Landmark that opened in 1929. Inside it is the Midmer-Losh organ, with over 33,000 pipes and a claim to being the largest musical instrument in the world. The hall hosted the original Miss America Pageant here from 1921 and continues to host concerts, boxing, and major events. The organ is demonstrated on occasional public days.

Where to Eat

The casino steakhouses and buffets are the expected option, but the better meals are away from the casino floors.

White House Sub Shop on Arctic Avenue has been making sandwiches since 1946, using locally baked bread and proportions that defy finishing solo. It is an Atlantic City institution and a genuine argument that the city has a food identity beyond the casinos.

Tony’s Baltimore Grill on Atlantic Avenue has served late-night Italian-American food since 1927. Order pasta and red sauce after midnight when the casino shifts change and the room fills with workers.

Borgata’s restaurant lineup, particularly the Old Homestead Steakhouse, represents the better end of casino dining. The property is in the marina district, about a mile from the boardwalk, and its 25,000-square-foot Asian gaming space opened in 2025 as the resort’s most significant interior renovation in years.

Lucy the Elephant

Four miles south in Margate, Lucy is a six-storey elephant-shaped building constructed in 1881, now a National Historic Landmark. Tours of the interior are available. It is strange, entirely intentional, and worth the short drive from the boardwalk.

Getting There

NJ Transit from Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station runs direct to Atlantic City in about an hour. From New York, bus services are the practical option. The boardwalk is compact enough that once you arrive, you walk.

Best visiting times: late spring (May, early June) and early fall (September, October) give good beach weather with manageable crowds. Summer weekends bring the highest prices and most entertainment. The casinos operate 24 hours regardless of season.