Atlantic City

Atlantic City — The World's Famous Playground

Atlantic City in 1920 was at its global peak — the famous Boardwalk, the grand hotels, Steel Pier, and the Miss America Pageant (inaugurated 1921) made this the most famous resort in America. The 1920 aerial shows the city in full splendor: the wide Boardwalk running parallel to the beach, the perpendicular piers extending into the ocean, and the dense urban grid behind. The beach itself was vast — wide enough to drive automobiles on, as was common then. The 1933 aerial shows Atlantic City just as the Depression was biting hard into the resort economy — the Boardwalk hotels are still standing but the economic decline was beginning. Compare 1920 and 1933 and you see a city at its peak and at the start of a long struggle.