Brigantine

Brigantine — The Quiet Island North of Atlantic City

Brigantine is a barrier island north of Atlantic City, separated from it by Brigantine Inlet. The 1920 aerial shows the island in its early resort development — a grid of streets taking shape behind natural dunes, with a wide beach and the inlet clearly visible to the south. Unlike its glamorous neighbor, Brigantine in 1920 was quiet and largely undeveloped. By 1933, the community had grown and the hurricane had eroded the oceanfront. The 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane struck the Atlantic County coast hard, and the Brigantine aerial from that year shows dune damage and storm scarring along the oceanfront. These three aerials capture Brigantine in the decades before its modern resort character fully emerged after World War II.