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BY ERIC MODEL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

JOURNEYS INTO NEW JERSEY

Even though Bert Parks and Miss America are no longer found here, New Jersey's Atlantic City still draws folks. Many come for the action at the casinos, but a surprising number worldwide are drawn by the famous boardwalk.

So accepted today is the notion of a boardwalk as a waterfront, pedestrian, entertainment district as much as the original meaning of a wooden path.

Of course, what we now take for granted was not always there.

One of the earliest boardwalks, if not the first, is said to have come into being right here in Atlantic City on June 26, 1870.

The seeds of its origins go back decades earlier to the 1830's. At that time, the Leeds family who had Abescon Island pretty much to itself (seven structures – Ma Leed and family) came up with the idea of turning the area into a seaside resort, and, they somehow convinced the state to build a railroad line from Camden out to their place.

The Leeds worked together to make the idea work. Ma Leed would get business for her housing business, younger son Bobby would become the "city's" new postmaster and older son Chalky was appointed the mayor.
On July 5, 1854, the first trainload of tourists appeared at the station outside of Ma Leed's place. For a long time they remained pretty much the only game in town. Business was good for the Leeds.

It took almost another twenty years before an actual road was built to AC from the mainland, by which time most of the bugs were worked out of the resort.

But one problem that remained was that of sand. It was everywhere, went everywhere, and many wanted a solution.

A boardwalk was that solution.

Bridging the sandy shore to the elegant buildings, the boardwalk actually ran simply east/west, serving as an aid to get to and from the beach (while also, not accidentally, providing a few hundred feet of planking that served as an extended mat to knock the sand off of feet.).

This earliest boardwalk lasted for a decade, until the place had grown so that a newer, larger and more expanded boardwalk was built running parallel to town – thus allowing access to the beach from several city streets.

While Atlantic City enjoyed an early lead in tourism, the other shore towns had been gearing up to compete. A.C.'s overcrowded beach and boardwalk turned many to the less-expensive and more accessible offerings of neighboring Wildwoods. Almost everyone took a page from A.C.'s development, and had built boardwalks of their own. Air travel made travel to resorts in

Florida and the Caribbean more desirable destinations.

Over the years, the idea of the boardwalk, first developed in Atlantic City, has been applied in non-beach settings as well. For example, they are also common as paths through wetlands, coastal dunes, and other sensitive environments. Boardwalks along intertidal zones are known as forshorways. A boardwalk along a river is often known as a riverwalk and a boardwalk along an oceanfront is often known as an oceanway.

Aside from their obvious pedestrian usage, boardwalks have been used to create commercial districts and enable commerce along waterfronts where conventional streets would have been more expensive because of a beach or other waterfront feature.

Many of the original boardwalks in the United States have developed to be so successful as commercial districts and tourist attractions that the simple wooden pathways have been replaced by esplanades made of concrete, brick or other construction, sometimes with a wooden facade on the surface and sometimes not.

Here in New Jersey, these days our leading boardwalks are to be found in places such as Seaside Heights ("low-rent charm"), Ocean City, "dry", clean and very family friendly, and Wildwood (two-miles of non-stop rides, arcades, food stands and more – even a chapel).

Back in Atlantic City, as long ago as the 1950's AC was looking for ways to reinvent itself – casinos brought in the 1970's helped for a spell. Now, new answers for today are being sought.

Through it all the boardwalk and its legacy manages to endure and is still a draw.

Eric Model explores the "offbeat, off the beaten path overlooked and forgotten" on SIRIUS-XM Radio and at journeysinto.com.