title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The city was incorporated in 1854, the same year train service began on the Camden and Atlantic Railroad. Built on the edge of the bay, this served as the direct link of this remote parcel of land with Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That same year, construction of the Absecon Lighthouse, designed by George Meade of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, was approved, with work initiated the next year. By 1874, almost 500,000 passengers a year were coming to Atlantic City by rail. In "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City", "Atlantic City's Godfather" Nelson Johnson describes the inspiration of Dr. Jonathan Pitney (the "Father of Atlantic City") to develop Atlantic City as a health resort, his efforts to convince the municipal authorities that a railroad to the beach would be beneficial, his successful alliance with Samuel Richards (entrepreneur and member of the most influential family in southern New Jersey at the time) to achieve that goal, the actual building of the railroad, and the experience of the first 600 riders, who "were chosen carefully by Samuel Richards and Jonathan Pitney":


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: After arriving in Atlantic City, a second train brought the visitors to the door of the resort's first public lodging, the United States Hotel. The hotel was owned by the railroad. It was a sprawling, four-story structure built to house 2,000 guests. It opened while it was still under construction, with only one wing standing, and even that wasn't completed. By year's end, when it was fully constructed, the United States Hotel was not only the first hotel in Atlantic City but also the largest in the nation. Its rooms totaled more than 600, and its grounds covered some 14 acres.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The first boardwalk was built in 1870 along a portion of the beach in an effort to help hotel owners keep sand out of their lobbies. Businesses were restricted and the boardwalk was removed each year at the end of the peak season. Because of its effectiveness and popularity, the boardwalk was expanded in length and width, and modified several times in subsequent years. The historic length of the boardwalk, before the destructive 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane, was about and it extended from Atlantic City to Longport, through Ventnor and Margate.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The first road connecting the city to the mainland at Pleasantville was completed in 1870 and charged a 30-cent toll. Albany Avenue was the first road to the mainland available without a toll.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: By 1878, because of the growing popularity of the city, one railroad line could no longer keep up with demand. Soon, the Philadelphia and Atlantic City Railway was also constructed to transport tourists to Atlantic City. At this point massive hotels like The United States and Surf House, as well as smaller rooming houses, had sprung up all over town. The United States Hotel took up a full city block between Atlantic, Pacific, Delaware, and Maryland Avenues. These hotels were not only impressive in size, but featured the most updated amenities, and were considered quite luxurious for their time.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In the early part of the 20th century, Atlantic City went through a radical building boom. Many of the modest boarding houses that dotted the boardwalk were replaced with large hotels. Two of the city's most distinctive hotels were the Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel and the Traymore Hotel.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In 1903, Josiah White III bought a parcel of land near Ohio Avenue and the boardwalk and built the Queen Anne style Marlborough House. The hotel was a success and, in 1905–1906, he chose to expand the hotel and bought another parcel of land adjacent to his Marlborough House. In an effort to make his new hotel a source of conversation, White hired the architectural firm of Price and McLanahan. The firm made use of reinforced concrete, a new building material invented by Jean-Louis Lambot in 1848 (Joseph Monier received the patent in 1867). The hotel's Spanish and Moorish themes, capped off with its signature dome and chimneys, represented a step forward from other hotels that had a classically designed influence. White named the new hotel the Blenheim and merged the two hotels into the Marlborough-Blenheim. Bally's Atlantic City was later constructed at this location.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The Traymore Hotel was located at the corner of Illinois Avenue and the boardwalk. Begun in 1879 as a small boarding house, the hotel grew through a series of uncoordinated expansions. By 1914, the hotel's owner, Daniel White, taking a hint from the Marlborough-Blenheim, commissioned the firm of Price and McLanahan to build an even bigger hotel. Rising 16 stories, the tan brick and gold-capped hotel would become one of the city's best-known landmarks. The hotel made use of ocean-facing hotel rooms by jutting its wings farther from the main portion of the hotel along Pacific Avenue.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: One by one, additional large hotels were constructed along the boardwalk, including the Brighton, Chelsea, Shelburne, Ambassador, Ritz Carlton, Mayflower, Madison House, and the Breakers. The Quaker-owned Chalfonte House, opened in 1868, and Haddon House, opened in 1869, flanked North Carolina Avenue at the beach end. Over the years, their original wood-frame structures would be enlarged, and even moved closer to the beach. The modern Chalfonte Hotel, eight stories tall, opened in 1904. The modern Haddon Hall was built in stages and was completed in 1929, at eleven stories. By this time, they were under the same ownership and merged into the Chalfonte-Haddon Hall Hotel, becoming the city's largest hotel with nearly 1,000 rooms. By 1930, the Claridge, the city's last large hotel before the casinos, opened its doors. The 400-room Claridge was built by a partnership that included renowned Philadelphia contractor John McShain. At 24 stories, it would become known as the "Skyscraper by the Sea". The city became known as "The World's Playground".


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In 1883, salt water taffy was conceived in Atlantic City by David Bradley. The traditional story is that Bradley's shop was flooded after a major storm, soaking his taffy with salty Atlantic Ocean water. He sold some "salt water taffy" to a girl, who proudly walked down to the beach to show her friends. Bradley's mother was in the back of the store when the sale was made, and loved the name, and so salt water taffy was born.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The 1920s, with tourism at its peak, are considered by many historians as Atlantic City's golden age. During Prohibition, which was enacted nationally in 1919 and lasted until 1933, much liquor was consumed and gambling regularly took place in the back rooms of nightclubs and restaurants. It was during Prohibition that racketeer and political boss Enoch L. "Nucky" Johnson rose to power. Prohibition was largely unenforced in Atlantic City, and, because alcohol that had been smuggled into the city with the acquiescence of local officials could be readily obtained at restaurants and other establishments, the resort's popularity grew further. The city then dubbed itself as "The World's Playground". Nucky Johnson's income, which reached as much as $500,000 annually, came from the kickbacks he took on illegal liquor, gambling and prostitution operating in the city, as well as from kickbacks on construction projects.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: During this time, Atlantic City was led by mayor Edward L. Bader, known for his contributions to the construction, athletics and aviation of Atlantic City. Despite opposition, he had Atlantic City purchase the land that became the city's municipal airport and high school football stadium, both of which were later named Bader Field in his honor. He led the initiative, in 1923, to construct the Atlantic City High School at Albany and Atlantic Avenues. Bader, in November 1923, initiated a public referendum, during the general election, at which time residents approved the construction of a Convention Center. The city passed an ordinance approving a bond issue for $1.5 million to be used for the purchase of land for Convention Hall, now known as the Boardwalk Hall, finalized on September 30, 1924. Bader was also a driving force behind the creation of the Miss America competition.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In May 1929, Johnson hosted a conference for organized crime figures from all across America that created a National Crime Syndicate. The men who called this meeting were Masseria family lieutenant Charles "Lucky" Luciano and former Chicago South Side Gang boss Johnny "the Fox" Torrio, with heads of the Bugs and Meyer Mob, Meyer Lansky and Benjamin Siegel, being used as muscle for the meeting. Gangster and businessman Al Capone attended the conference and was photographed walking along the Atlantic City boardwalk with Johnson.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The 1930s through the 1960s were a heyday for nightclub entertainment. Popular venues on the white-populated south side included the 500 Club, the Clicquot Club, and the Jockey Club. On the north side, home to African Americans in the racially segregated city, a black entertainment district reigned on Kentucky Avenue. Four major nightclubs—Club Harlem, the Paradise Club, Grace's Little Belmont, and Wonder Gardens—drew both black and white patrons. During the summer tourist season, jazz and R&B music could be heard into the wee hours of the morning. Soul food restaurants and ribs joints also lined Kentucky Avenue, including Wash's Restaurant, Jerry's and Sap's.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Like many older East Coast cities after World War II, Atlantic City became plagued with poverty, crime, corruption, and general economic decline in the mid-to-late 20th century. The neighborhood known as the "Inlet" became particularly impoverished. The reasons for the resort's decline were multi-layered. First, the automobile became more readily available to many Americans after the war. Atlantic City had initially relied upon visitors coming by train and staying for a couple of weeks. The car allowed them to come and go as they pleased, and many people would spend only a few days, rather than weeks. The advent of suburbia also played a significant role. With many families moving to their own private houses, luxuries such as home air conditioning and swimming pools diminished their interest in flocking to the luxury beach resorts during the hot summer. Finally, the rise of relatively cheap jet airline service allowed visitors to travel to year-round resort places such as Miami Beach and the Bahamas.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The city hosted the 1964 Democratic National Convention which nominated Lyndon Johnson for president and Hubert Humphrey as vice president. The convention and the press coverage it generated, however, cast a harsh light on Atlantic City, which by then was in the midst of a long period of economic decline. Many felt that the friendship between Johnson and Governor of New Jersey Richard J. Hughes led Atlantic City to host the Democratic Convention.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: By the late 1960s, many of the resort's once great hotels were suffering from high vacancy rates. Most of them were either shut down, converted to cheap apartments, or converted to nursing home facilities by the end of the decade. Prior to and during the advent of legalized gambling, many of these hotels were demolished. The Breakers, The Chelsea, the Brighton, the Shelburne, the Mayflower, the Traymore and the Marlborough-Blenheim were demolished in the 1970s and 1980s. Of the many pre-casino resorts that bordered the boardwalk, only the Claridge, the Dennis, the Ritz-Carlton, and the Haddon Hall survive to this day as parts of Bally's Atlantic City, a condo complex, and Resorts Atlantic City. The old Ambassador Hotel was purchased by Ramada in 1978 and was gutted to become the Tropicana Casino and Resort Atlantic City, only reusing the steelwork of the original building. Smaller hotels off the boardwalk, such as the Madison also survived.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In an effort at revitalizing the city, New Jersey voters in 1976 passed a referendum, approving casino gambling for Atlantic City; this came after a 1974 referendum on legalized gambling failed to pass. Immediately after the legislation passed, the owners of the Chalfonte-Haddon Hall Hotel began converting it into the Resorts International. It was the first legal casino in the eastern United States when it opened on May 26, 1978. Other casinos were soon constructed along the Boardwalk and, later, in the marina district for a total of nine today. The introduction of gambling did not, however, quickly eliminate many of the urban problems that plagued Atlantic City. Many people have suggested that it only served to exacerbate those problems, as attested to by the stark contrast between tourism intensive areas and the adjacent impoverished working-class neighborhoods. In addition, Atlantic City has been less popular than Las Vegas as a gambling city in the United States. Donald Trump helped bring big name boxing bouts to the city to attract customers to his casinos. The boxer Mike Tyson had most of his fights in Atlantic City in the 1980s, which helped Atlantic City achieve nationwide attention as a gambling resort. Numerous highrise condominiums were built for use as permanent residences or second homes. By end of the decade it was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: On June 27, 2017, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear "Christie v. National Collegiate Athletic Association" and heard oral arguments in December 2017. Then, on May 14, 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was unconstitutional. The act was overturned, allowing New Jersey to move ahead with plans to implement legalized sports betting.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Despite being the state to initiate the landmark ruling, New Jersey was actually the third state to legalize sports betting following Nevada and Delaware. Gov. Phil Murphy signed the legislation into law on June 11, 2018, prompting several casino brands to launch sportsbooks, particularly in Atlantic City.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: With the redevelopment of the Las Vegas Strip and the opening of Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut in the early 1990s, along with newly built casinos in the nearby Philadelphia metro area in the 2000s, Atlantic City's tourism began to decline due to its failure to diversify away from gaming. Determined to expand, in 1999 the Atlantic City Redevelopment Authority partnered with Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn to develop a new roadway to a barren section of the city near the Marina. Nicknamed "The Tunnel Project", Steve Wynn planned the proposed 'Mirage Atlantic City' around the idea that he would connect the $330 million tunnel stretching from the Atlantic City Expressway to his new resort. The roadway was later officially named the Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector, and funnels incoming traffic off of the expressway into the city's marina district and the city of Brigantine.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Although Wynn's plans for development in the city were scrapped in 2002, the tunnel opened in 2001. The new roadway prompted Boyd Gaming in partnership with MGM/Mirage to build Atlantic City's newest casino. Borgata opened in July 2003, and its success brought an influx of developers to Atlantic City with plans for building grand Las Vegas style mega casinos to revitalize the aging city.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Owing to economic conditions and the late 2000s recession, many of the proposed mega casinos never went further than the initial planning stages. One of these developers was Pinnacle Entertainment, who purchased the Sands Atlantic City for $250–$270 million, closed it on November 11, 2006, with plans to replace it with a larger casino. The following year, the resort was demolished in a implosion, the first of its kind in Atlantic City. While Pinnacle Entertainment intended to replace it with a $1.5–2 billion casino resort, the company canceled its construction plans and sold the land for $29.5 million. MGM Resorts International announced in October 2007 that it would pull out of all development for Atlantic City, effectively ending their plans for the MGM Grand Atlantic City.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In 2006, Morgan Stanley purchased directly north of the Showboat Atlantic City Hotel and Casino for a new $2 billion plus casino resort. Revel Entertainment Group was named as the project's developer for the Revel Casino. Revel was hindered with many problems, the biggest setback occurring in April 2010 when Morgan Stanley, the owner of 90% of Revel Entertainment Group, decided to discontinue funding for continued construction and put its stake in Revel up for sale. Early in 2010 the New Jersey state legislature passed a bill offering tax incentives to attract new investors and complete the job, but a poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind released in March 2010 showed that 60% of voters opposed the legislation, and two of three of those who opposed it "strongly" opposed it. Ultimately, Governor Chris Christie offered Revel $261 million in state tax credits to assist the casino once it opened. , Revel had completed all of the exterior work and had continued work on the interior after finally receiving the funding necessary to complete construction. It had a soft opening in April 2012, and was fully open by May 2012. Ten months later, in February 2013, after serious losses and a write-down in the value of the resort from $2.4 billion to $450 million, Revel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was restructured but still could not carry on and re-entered bankruptcy on June 19, 2014. It was put up for sale, however as no suitable bids were received the resort closed its doors on September 2, 2014. The property was bought by AC Ocean Walk, LLC for $200 million in 2017, and reopened in 2018 as Ocean Casino Resort.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In the wake of the closures and declining revenue from casinos, Governor Christie said in September 2014 that the state would consider a 2015 referendum to end the 40-year-old monopoly that Atlantic City holds on casino gambling and allowing gambling in other municipalities. With casino revenue declining from $5.2 billion in 2006 to $2.9 billion in 2013, the state saw a drop in money from its 8% tax on those earnings, which is used to fund programs for senior citizens and the disabled.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: "Superstorm Sandy" struck Atlantic City on October 29, 2012, causing flooding and power-outages but left minimal damage to any of the tourist areas. The storm produced an all-time record low barometric pressure reading of 943 mb (27.85") for not only Atlantic City, but the state of New Jersey.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic City has one of the highest rates of foreclosures in the country, particularly affecting Black residents in neighborhoods segregated by redlining.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: After several casino closures and a worldwide pandemic, strikes and pickets were being threatened in June 2022 by casino employees which were short-staffed and wanted pay raises.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, Atlantic City had a total area of 17.21 square miles (44.59 km), including 10.76 square miles (27.87 km) of land and 6.45 square miles (16.72 km) of water (37.50%).


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The city is located on Absecon Island, along with Ventnor City, Margate City and Longport to the southwest.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic City borders the Atlantic County municipalities of Absecon, Brigantine, Egg Harbor Township, Galloway Township, Pleasantville and Ventnor City.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the city include Chelsea, City Island, Great Island and Venice Park.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: According to the Köppen climate classification system, Atlantic City, New Jersey, has a humid subtropical climate ("Cfa") with warm, moderately humid summers, cool winters and year-around precipitation. Cfa climates are characterized by all months having an average mean temperature > 32 °F (> 0 °C), at least four months with an average mean temperature ≥ 50 °F (≥ 10 °C), at least one month with an average mean temperature ≥ 72 °F (≥ 22 °C) and no significant precipitation difference between seasons. During the summer months in Atlantic City, a cooling afternoon sea breeze is present on most days, but episodes of extreme heat and humidity can occur with heat index values ≥ 95 °F (≥ 35 °C). During the winter months, episodes of extreme cold and wind can occur with wind chill values < 0 °F (< −18 °C). The plant hardiness zone at Atlantic City Beach is 8a with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of 11 °F (−11 °C). The average seasonal (November–April) snowfall total is , and the average snowiest month is February which corresponds with the annual peak in nor'easter activity.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types, Atlantic City would have a dominant vegetation type of Northern Cordgrass ("73") with a dominant vegetation form of Coastal Prairie ("20").


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The Census Bureau's 2006–2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars) median household income was $30,237 (with a margin of error of +/− $2,354) and the median family income was $35,488 (+/− $2,607). Males had a median income of $32,207 (+/− $1,641) versus $29,298 (+/− $1,380) for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,069 (+/− $2,532). About 23.1% of families and 25.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 36.6% of those under age 18 and 16.8% of those age 65 or over.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: As of the 2000 United States Census there were 40,517 people, 15,848 households, and 8,700 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 20,219 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 44.16% black or African American, 26.68% White, 0.48% Native American, 10.40% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 13.76% other races, and 4.47% from two or more races. 24.95% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 19.44% of the population was non-Hispanic whites.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: There were 15,848 households, out of which 27.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 24.8% were married couples living together, 23.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.1% were non-families. 37.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.26.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In the city the age distribution of the population shows 25.7% under the age of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 31.0% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, and 14.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.2 males.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The median income for a household in the city was $26,969, and the median income for a family was $31,997. Males had a median income of $25,471 versus $23,863 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,402. About 19.1% of families and 23.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.1% of those under age 18 and 18.9% of those age 65 or over.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: As of September 2014, the greater Atlantic City area had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country at 13.8%, out of labor force of around 141,000.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In July 2010, Governor Chris Christie announced that a state takeover of the city and local government "was imminent". Comparing regulations in Atlantic City to an "antique car", Atlantic City regulatory reform is a key piece of Governor Chris Christie's plan, unveiled on July 22, to reinvigorate an industry mired in a four-year slump in revenue and hammered by fresh competition from casinos in the surrounding states of Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and more recently, Maryland. In January 2011, Chris Christie announced the creation of the Atlantic City Tourism District, a state-run district encompassing the boardwalk casinos, the marina casinos, the Atlantic City Outlets, and Bader Field. Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind poll surveyed New Jersey voters' attitudes on the takeover. February 16, 2011, survey showed that 43% opposed the measure while 29% favored direct state oversight. The poll also found that even South Jersey voters expressed opposition to the plan; 40% reported they opposed the measure and 37% reported they were in favor of it.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: On April 29, 2011, the boundaries for the state-run tourism district were set. The district would include heavier police presence, as well as beautification and infrastructure improvements. The CRDA would oversee all functions of the district and make changes to attract new businesses and attractions. New construction has already resulted in cases of eminent domain being used to seize properties for development.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The tourism district would comprise several key areas in the city; the Marina District, Ducktown, Chelsea, South Inlet, Bader Field, and Gardner's Basin. Also included are 10 roadways that lead into the district, including several in the city's northern end, or North Beach. Gardner's Basin, which is home to the Atlantic City Aquarium, was initially left out of the tourism district, while a residential neighborhood in the Chelsea section was removed from the final boundaries, owing to complaints from the city. Also, the inclusion of Bader Field in the district was controversial and received much scrutiny from mayor Lorenzo Langford, who cast the lone "no" vote on the creation of the district citing its inclusion.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The history of gambling in Atlantic City traces back to Prohibition and the 1920s, with racketeer Louis Kuehnle running an underground hotel and casino. Enoch "Nucky" Johnson followed and furthered Atlantic City's rise through the Roaring Twenties as a destination for drinking, gambling, and nightlife. In 1974, New Jersey voters voted 60%–40% against legalizing casino gambling at four sites statewide, but two years later approved by 56%–44% a new referendum which legalized casinos, but restricted them to Atlantic City. Resorts Atlantic City was the first casino to open, in May 1978, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring Governor of New Jersey Brendan Byrne. Atlantic City is considered the "Gambling Capital of the East Coast", and currently has nine large casinos. In 2011, New Jersey's then 12 casinos employed approximately 33,000 employees, had 28.5 million visitors, made $3.3 billion in gaming revenue, and paid $278 million in taxes. They are regulated by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In the wake of the economic downturn following the Great Recession and the legalization of gambling in adjacent and nearby states (including Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania), four casino closures took place in 2014: the Atlantic Club on January 13; the Showboat on August 31; the Revel, which was Atlantic City's second-newest casino, on September 2; and Trump Plaza, which originally opened in 1984, and was the poorest performing casino in the city, on September 16.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Executives at Trump Entertainment Resorts, whose sole remaining property at the time was the Trump Taj Mahal, said in 2013 that they were considering the option of selling the Taj and winding down and exiting the gaming and hotel business. Trump Taj Mahal closed October 10, 2016, after failing to come to terms with union workers.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Caesars Entertainment executives have been reconsidering the future of their three remaining Atlantic City properties (Bally's, Caesars and Harrah's), in the wake of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by the company's casino operating unit in January 2015. In 2020, Bally's Atlantic City was acquired by Bally's Corporation.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The Atlantic City Boardwalk opened on June 26, 1870, a temporary structure erected for the summer season that was the first boardwalk in the United States.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The Boardwalk starts at Absecon Inlet in the north and runs along the beach south-west to the city limit away then continues into Ventnor City. Casino/hotels front the boardwalk, as well as retail stores, restaurants, and amusements. Notable attractions include the Boardwalk Hall, House of Blues, and the Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy destroyed the northern part of the boardwalk fronting Absecon Inlet, in the residential section called South Inlet. The oceanfront boardwalk in front of the Atlantic City casinos survived the storm with minimal damage.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The first pier along the boardwalk, Applegate's Pier, opened in 1884. It was acquired by John L. Young in 1891, who expanded and operated it as Young's Ocean Pier, but it was mostly destroyed in a 1912 fire. The remaining part of the pier was rebuilt in 1922 as the Central Pier, which is still in operation.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The most famous Atlantic City pier was Steel Pier, which opened in 1898, and which once billed itself as "The Showplace of the Nation". It closed in 1978, and was mostly destroyed in a 1982 fire. It was rebuilt in the late 1980s and is now operated as an amusement pier across from the Hard Rock.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Steeplechase Pier opened in 1899 and operated until 1986. It suffered significant damage in a 1988 fire, and the remnants of the pier were removed in 1996. The "Steeplechase Pier Heliport" on Steel Pier is named in its honor.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Captain John L. Young opened "Young's Million Dollar Pier" in 1906, and on the seaward side "erected a marble mansion", fronted by a formal garden, with lighting and landscaping designed by Young's longtime friend Thomas Alva Edison. Million Dollar Pier once rivaled Steel Pier as Atlantic City's leading pier, but after suffering decades of decline, was rebuilt into a shopping mall in the 1980s, known as "Shops on Ocean One". In 2006, the Ocean One mall was bought, renovated and re-branded as "The Pier Shops at Caesars" and in 2015, it was renamed "Playground Pier".


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Garden Pier, located opposite Ocean Casino Resort, once housed a movie theater, and is now home to the Atlantic City Historical Museum.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic City has many different shopping districts and malls, many of which are located inside or adjacent to the casino resorts. Several smaller themed retail and dining areas in casino hotels include the Borgata Shops and The Shoppes at Water Club inside Borgata, the Waterfront Shops inside of Harrah's, Spice Road inside the Trump Taj Mahal, while Resorts Casino Hotel has a small collection of stores and restaurants. Major shopping malls are also located in and around Atlantic City.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Boardwalk Hall, formally known as the "Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall", is an arena in Atlantic City along the boardwalk. Boardwalk Hall was Atlantic City's primary convention center until the opening of the Atlantic City Convention Center in 1997. The Atlantic City Convention Center includes of showroom space, 5 exhibit halls, 45 meeting rooms with of space, a garage with 1,400 parking spaces, and an adjacent Sheraton hotel. Both the Boardwalk Hall and Convention Center are operated by the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic City (sometimes referred to as "Monopoly City") has become well-known over the years for its portrayal in the U.S. version of the popular board game "Monopoly", in which properties on the board are named after locations in and near Atlantic City. While the original incarnation of the game did not feature Atlantic City, it was in Indianapolis that Ruth Hoskins learned the game, and took it back to Atlantic City. After she arrived, Hoskins made a new board with Atlantic City street names, and taught it to a group of friends, who ultimately passed in on to Charles Darrow, who made some modifications to the game and claimed it as his own invention. The relative prices of the places on the board reflect to some extent the social status of neighborhoods at the time, with wealthy white streets being worth more, and streets where Black and Asian residents lived being cheaper.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Marvin Gardens, the leading yellow property on the board, is actually a misspelling of the original location name, "Marven Gardens". The misspelling was said to have been introduced by Charles Todd and passed on when his home-made "Monopoly" board was copied by Charles Darrow and thence Parker Brothers. It was not until 1995 that Parker Brothers acknowledged this mistake and formally apologized to the residents of Marven Gardens for the misspelling, although the spelling error was not corrected.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Some of the actual locations that correspond to board elements have changed since the game's release. Illinois Avenue was renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in the 1980s. St. Charles Place no longer exists, as the Showboat Casino Hotel was developed where it once ran.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The "Short Line" is believed to refer to the Shore Fast Line, a streetcar line that served Atlantic City. The B&O Railroad did not serve Atlantic City. A booklet included with the reprinted 1935 edition states that the four railroads that served Atlantic City in the mid-1930s were the Jersey Central, the Seashore Lines, the Reading Railroad, and the Pennsylvania Railroad.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Ever since Atlantic City's growth as a resort town, numerous attractions and tourist traps have originated in the city. A popular fixture in the early 20th century at the Steel Pier was horse diving, which was introduced by William "Doc" Carver. The Steel Pier featured several other novelty attractions, including the Diving Bell, human high-divers and a water circus. Advertisements for the Steel Pier in its heyday featured plaster sculptures set upon wooden bases along roads leading up to Atlantic City. By the end of World War II, many animal demonstrations declined in popularity after criticisms of animal abuse and neglect.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Rolling chairs, which were introduced in 1876 and in continuous use since 1887, have been a boardwalk fixture to this day. While powered carts appeared in the 1960s, the original and most common were made of wicker. The wicker canopied chairs-on-wheels are manually pushed the length of the boardwalk by attendants, much like a Rickshaw.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The Absecon Lighthouse is a coastal lighthouse located in the South Inlet section of Atlantic City overlooking Absecon Inlet. It is the tallest lighthouse in the state of New Jersey and is the third tallest masonry lighthouse in the United States. Construction began in 1854, with the light first lit on January 15, 1857. The lighthouse was deactivated in 1933 and although the light still shines every night, it is no longer an active navigational aid. Gardner's Basin, which is home to the Atlantic City Aquarium as well as small shops and restaurants, is located a short distance north of Absecon Light.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Since 2003, Atlantic City has hosted Thunder over the Boardwalk, an annual airshow over the boardwalk. The yearly event, a joint venture between the New Jersey Air National Guard's 177th Fighter Wing along with several casinos, attracts over 750,000 visitors each year.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: While located south of Atlantic City in Margate City, Lucy the Elephant has become almost an icon for the Atlantic City area. Lucy is a six-story elephant-shaped example of novelty architecture, constructed of wood and tin sheeting in 1882 by James V. Lafferty in an effort to sell real estate and attract tourism. Over the years, Lucy had served as a restaurant, business office, cottage, and tavern (the last closed by Prohibition). Lucy had fallen into disrepair by the 1960s and was scheduled for demolition. The structure was moved and refurbished as a result of a "Save Lucy" campaign in 1970 and received designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1976, and is open as a museum.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic City was the home of the Miss America competition, hosting the event from its inception until 2004, and again from 2013 to 2018. The Miss America competition originated on September 7, 1921, as a two-day beauty contest, and it included state contestants as well as women from various cities around the country. The event that year was called the "Atlantic City Pageant", and the winner of the grand prize, Margaret Gorman, took home the 3-foot Golden Mermaid trophy. Gorman was not called "Miss America" until 1922, when she re-entered the pageant and lost to Mary Campbell. The pageant was initiated to extend the tourist season after the Labor Day weekend. The pageant has been nationally televised since 1954. It peaked in the early 1960s, when it was repeatedly the highest-rated program on American television. It was seen as a symbol of the United States, with Miss America often being referred to as the female equivalent of the President. The pageant's longtime emcee, Bert Parks, hosted the event from 1955 to 1979. At the Atlantic City Convention Center, there is a interactive statue of Parks holding a crown. When a visitor puts their head inside the crown, sensors activate a recorded playback of his ""There She Is..."" line through speakers hidden behind nearby bushes.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: An LGBT event known as the "Miss'd America Pageant" is held annually. Originally started in 1994 as a fundraiser for local LGBT charities, the event features drag queens on the runway in a similar manner to the Miss America pageant.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Since 2010, "Boardwalk Empire", an American television series from cable network HBO set in Atlantic City during the Prohibition era, has cast a new light on the city. Starring Steve Buscemi, the show was adapted from a chapter about historical criminal kingpin Enoch "Nucky" Johnson (who is renamed "Enoch Thompson" in the show) in Nelson Johnson's book, "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City". The series was filmed in New York City at various locations that captured Atlantic City's period architecture and on a set built to resemble the Atlantic City boardwalk in the 1920s.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Around the same time of the September 2010 premiere of the show, the "Press of Atlantic City" created "Boss of the Boardwalk", a 45-minute documentary which premiered on August 21, 2010, on NBC TV-40 and aired six additional times in the following weeks.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: After the premiere of "Boardwalk Empire", interest in Roaring Twenties-era Atlantic City has grown. In October 2010, a plan was revealed to renovate the ailing Resorts Casino Hotel into a Roaring Twenties theme. The re-branding was proposed by current owner Dennis Gomes, and was initiated in December 2010 when he took over the casino. The changes accentuate the resort's existing art deco design, as well as presenting new 20s-era uniforms for employees and music from the time period. The casino also introduced drinks and shows reminiscent of the period. The actual building where he lived, The Ritz-Carlton, offer tours.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In 2011, Academy Bus began a trolley tour called "Nucky's Way", a tour bus service that features actors portraying Nucky, as well as other characters, as it loops around the city. Nucky's Way is the second trolley tour to capitalize off of "Boardwalk Empire", after The Great American Trolley company started a weekly tour of Atlantic City with a Roaring Twenties theme in early June 2011.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: On August 1, 2011, a façade modeled after the set of "Boardwalk Empire" was unveiled on the boardwalk in front of an empty lot at the former site of the Trump World's Fair resort. The façade of storefronts, which consists of vinyl tacked onto three large sections of plywood, was the brainchild of longtime area radio host Pinky Kravitz, who was also a columnist for "The Press of Atlantic City" and host of "WMGM-TV Presents Pinky" on NBC40.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In 2014, it was announced that Atlantic City would host two major beach concerts. The two headliners were Blake Shelton, which took place on July 31, 2015, and Lady Antebellum, which took place on August 3, 2014. On June 22, 2015, it was announced that Maroon 5 with special guest Nick Jonas and Matt McAndrew would headline on August 16, 2015. A few weeks later, it was announced that Rascal Flatts would play the second major beach concert of the summer season on August 20, 2015, with special guest Ashley Monroe. This concert would be part of their Riot Tour. Both concerts charged admission.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The Atlantic City Race Course in Hamilton Township was a horse racing track that operated from 1946 to 2015.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The ShopRite LPGA Classic is an LPGA Tour women's golf tournament held near Atlantic City since it started in 1986.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Since February 2, 1887, the city of Atlantic City has seen 2,538 (as of September 2018) professional boxing fight programs, the first one being one with a main event fight between Willie Clark, 3-0-3, and debuting Horace Leeds, won by Clark on points over four rounds. During the 1980s, professional boxing activity boomed in Atlantic City, at times rivaling Las Vegas, Nevada, in staging major boxing fights. Fighters who fought in Atlantic City at that era include Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Wilfredo Gómez, Jeff Chandler, Larry Holmes, George Foreman, Mike Tyson and others. Fights included The Brawl For it All, Tyson versus Holmes, Tyson versus Michael Spinks, and Roberto Durán versus Iran Barkley.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Many boxing matches were held at Donald Trump's Trump Plaza, promoted either by Bob Arum or Don King.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic City is one of five municipalities in the state—and the only one outside of Cape May County—that offer free public access to oceanfront beaches monitored by lifeguards, joining Wildwood, North Wildwood, Wildwood Crest and Upper Township's Strathmere section.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic City is governed within the Faulkner Act (formally known as the Optional Municipal Charter Law) under the Mayor-Council system of municipal government (Plan D), implemented by direct petition effective as of July 1, 1982. The city is one of 71 municipalities (of the 564) statewide governed under this form. The governing body of Atlantic City is the Mayor and the City Council, all elected on a partisan basis to serve four-year terms of office as part of the November general election. The council is comprised of nine members, who are elected on a staggered basis, with one member from each of six wards and three serving at-large. The six ward seats are up for election together and the mayoral seat and the council at-large seats are up for vote together two years later. The City Council exercises the legislative power of the municipality for the purpose of holding Council meetings to introduce ordinances and resolutions to regulate City government. In addition, Council members review budgets submitted by the Mayor; provide for an annual audit of the city's accounts and financial transactions; organize standing committees and hold public hearings to address important issues which impact Atlantic City. Former Mayor Bob Levy created the Atlantic City Ethics Board in 2007, but the Board was dissolved two years later by vote of the Atlantic City Council.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: , the Mayor is Marty Small Sr., whose term of office ends December 31, 2025. Small succeeded Frank M. Gilliam Jr. following his resignation on October 3, 2019. Small initially served as mayor on an interim basis for an unexpired term ending on December 31, 2021. Members of the City Council are Council President George Tibbitt (D, 2025; At-Large), Council Vice President Kaleem Shabazz (D, 2023; 3rd Ward), LaToya Dunston (D, 2023; Second Ward – elected to serve an unexpired term), Jesse O. Kurtz (Republican Party, 2023; 6th Ward), Stephanie Marshall (D, 2025; At-Large), MD Hossain Morshed (D, 2023; 4th Ward), Aaron "Sporty" Randolph (D, 2023; 1st Ward), Bruce Weekes (D, 2025; At-Large) and Muhammad "Anjum" Zia (D, 2023; 5th Ward).


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In May 2020, voters rejected by a 3–1 margin a referendum that would have changed the city to a council-manager form of government which would have reduced the size of the city council and shifted responsibility for day-to-day operation from an elected mayor to an appointed city manager.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In December 2019, LaToya Dunston was selected from a list of three candidates nominated by the Democratic municipal committee to serve the remainder of the term of the Second Ward seat that had been held by Marty Small until he stepped down when he was appointed as mayor. In January 2020, Dunston was appointed to fill the Second Ward seat expiring in December 2023 that Small had won in November 2019 but declined to fill; Dunston will serve on an interim basis until the November 2020 general election, when voters will select a candidate to serve the balance of the term of office.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Following questions about false claims he had made about his military record, Mayor Bob Levy left City Hall in September 2007 in a city-owned vehicle for an unknown destination. After a 13-day absence, his lawyer revealed that Levy was in Carrier Clinic, a rehabilitation hospital. Levy resigned in October 2007 and then-Council President William Marsh assumed the office of Mayor and served six weeks until an interim mayor was named.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic City is located in the 2nd Congressional district and is part of New Jersey's 2nd state legislative district.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic County is governed by a directly elected county executive and a nine-member Board of County Commissioners, responsible for legislation. The executive serves a four-year term and the commissioners are elected to staggered three-year terms, of which four are elected from the county on an at-large basis and five of the commissioners represent equally populated districts. , Atlantic County's Executive is Republican Dennis Levinson, whose term of office ends December 31, 2023. Members of the Board of County Commissioners are:


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Ernest D. Coursey, District 1, including Atlantic City (part), Egg Harbor Township (part), and Pleasantville (D, 2022, Atlantic City), Chair Maureen Kern, District 2, including Atlantic City (part), Egg Harbor Township (part), Linwood, Longport, Margate City, Northfield, Somers Point and Ventnor City (R, 2024, Somers Point), Andrew Parker III, District 3, including Egg Harbor Township (part) and Hamilton Township (part) (R, Egg Harbor Township, 2023), Richard R. Dase, District 4, including Absecon, Brigantine, Galloway Township and Port Republic (R, 2022, Galloway Township), James A. Bertino, District 5, including Buena, Buena Vista Township, Corbin City, Egg Harbor City, Estell Manor, Folsom, Hamilton Township (part), Hammonton, Mullica Township and Weymouth Township (R, 2018, Hammonton), Caren L. Fitzpatrick, At-Large (D, 2023, Linwood), Frank X. Balles, At-Large (R, Pleasantville, 2024) Amy L. Gatto, Freeholder (R, 2022, Hamilton Township) and Vice Chair John W. Risley, At-Large (R, 2023, Egg Harbor Township)


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: As of March 23, 2011, there were a total of 20,001 registered voters in Atlantic City, of which 12,063 (60.3% vs. 30.5% countywide) were registered as Democrats, 1,542 (7.7% vs. 25.2%) were registered as Republicans and 6,392 (32.0% vs. 44.3%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 4 voters registered to other parties. Among the city's 2010 Census population, 50.6% (vs. 58.8% in Atlantic County) were registered to vote, including 67.0% of those ages 18 and over (vs. 76.6% countywide).


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 9,948 votes (86.6% vs. 57.9% countywide), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 1,548 votes (13.5% vs. 41.1%) and other candidates with 49 votes (0.4% vs. 0.9%), among the 11,489 ballots cast by the city's 21,477 registered voters, for a turnout of 53.5% (vs. 65.8% in Atlantic County). In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 10,975 votes (82.1% vs. 56.5% countywide), ahead of Republican John McCain with 2,175 votes (16.3% vs. 41.6%) and other candidates with 82 votes (0.6% vs. 1.1%), among the 13,370 ballots cast by the city's 26,030 registered voters, for a turnout of 51.4% (vs. 68.1% in Atlantic County). In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 8,487 votes (74.5% vs. 52.0% countywide), ahead of Republican George W. Bush with 2,687 votes (23.6% vs. 46.2%) and other candidates with 96 votes (0.8% vs. 0.8%), among the 11,389 ballots cast by the city's 23,310 registered voters, for a turnout of 48.9% (vs. 69.8% in the whole county).


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Democrat Barbara Buono received 4,293 ballots cast (52.6% vs. 34.9% countywide), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 2,897 votes (35.5% vs. 60.0%) and other candidates with 63 votes (0.8% vs. 1.3%), among the 8,155 ballots cast by the city's 23,049 registered voters, yielding a 35.4% turnout (vs. 41.5% in the county). In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Democrat Jon Corzine received 4,988 ballots cast (69.9% vs. 44.5% countywide), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 1,578 votes (22.1% vs. 47.7%), Independent Chris Daggett with 157 votes (2.2% vs. 4.8%) and other candidates with 99 votes (1.4% vs. 1.2%), among the 7,141 ballots cast by the city's 22,585 registered voters, yielding a 31.6% turnout (vs. 44.9% in the county).


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The New Jersey Casino Control Commission is a New Jersey state governmental agency that was founded in 1977 as the state's Gaming Control Board, responsible for administering the Casino Control Act and its regulations to assure public trust and confidence in the credibility and integrity of the casino industry and casino operations in Atlantic City. Casinos operate under licenses granted by the commission. The commission is headquartered in the Arcade Building at Tennessee Avenue and Boardwalk in Atlantic City.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement is a division of the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety and is responsible for certifying casino gaming revenue, registering casino employees and non-gaming vendors, licensing gaming vendors, and handling all casino patron complaints.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The CRDA was founded in 1984 and is responsible for directing the spending of casino reinvestment funds in public and private projects to benefit Atlantic City and other areas of the state. From 1985 through April 2008, CRDA spent US$1.5 billion on projects in Atlantic City and US$300 million throughout New Jersey.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The Convention & Visitors Authority (ACCVA) was in charge of advertising and marketing for the city as well as promoting economic growth through convention and leisure tourism development. The ACCVA managed the Boardwalk Hall and Atlantic City Convention Center, as well as the Boardwalk Welcome Center inside Boardwalk Hall and a welcome center on the Atlantic City Expressway. In 2011, the ACCVA was absorbed into the CRDA as part of the state takeover that created the tourism district.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The Atlantic City Special Improvement District (SID) was a nonprofit organization created in 1992, funded by a special assessment tax on businesses within the improvement district. It carried out various activities to improve the city's business community, including street cleaning and promotional efforts. In 2011, the SID was absorbed by the CRDA; the former SID boundaries would be expanded to the include all areas in the newly formed tourism district. Under the new structure, established by state legislation, the CRDA assumed responsibility for the staff, equipment and programs of the SID. The new SID division includes a SID committee made up of CRDA board members and an advisory council consisting of the current trustees and others.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The Atlantic City Fire Department (ACFD) provides fire protection and first responder emergency medical services to the city. The ACFD operates out of six fire stations, located throughout the city in one battalion, under the command of a Battalion Chief, who in-turn reports to an on-duty Deputy Chief, or Tour Commander each shift.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The city is protected by the Atlantic City Police Department, which handles 150,000 calls per year. The Chief of Police is Henry White.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The Atlantic City School District serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grades. As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of 11 schools, had an enrollment of 6,553 students and 617.3 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.6:1. Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic City High School (1,771; 9–12). Pennsylvania Avenue School opened for the 2012–2013 school year, with most students shifting from New Jersey Avenue School, which had been one of the district's oldest and most rundown schools.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Students from Brigantine, Longport, Margate City and Ventnor City attend Atlantic City High School as part of sending/receiving relationships with the respective school districts.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: City public school students are also eligible to attend the Atlantic County Institute of Technology in the Mays Landing section of Hamilton Township or the Charter-Tech High School for the Performing Arts, located in Somers Point.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Oceanside Charter School, which offered pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade, was founded in 1999 and closed in June 2013 when its charter wasn't renewed by the New Jersey Department of Education.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Founded in 1908, Our Lady Star of the Sea Regional School is a Catholic elementary school, operated under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Camden.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Nearby college campuses include those of Atlantic Cape Community College and Stockton University, the latter of which offers classes and resources in the city such as the Carnegie Library Center, which was turned back to the control of the city in April 2022.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic City is part of the Philadelphia television market. There, six stations licensed in the area.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: , the city had a total of of roadways, of which were maintained by the municipality, by Atlantic County, by the New Jersey Department of Transportation and by the South Jersey Transportation Authority.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The three roadways into Atlantic City are the Black Horse Pike/Harding Highway (US 322/40 via the Albany Avenue drawbridge), White Horse Pike (US 30), and the Atlantic City Expressway (including the Brigantine Connector). Atlantic City is roughly south of New York City by road (via the Garden State Parkway) and southeast of Philadelphia.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic City is connected to other cities in several ways. NJ Transit's Atlantic City Rail Terminal at the Atlantic City Convention Center provides service from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia through several smaller South Jersey communities via the Atlantic City Line.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: On June 20, 2006, the board of NJ Transit approved a three-year trial of express train service between New York Penn Station and the Atlantic City Rail Terminal. The line, known as ACES (Atlantic City Express Service), ran from February 2009 to March 2012. The approximate travel time was hours, with a stop at Newark's Penn Station, and was part of the casinos' multimillion-dollar investments in Atlantic City. Most of the funding for the transit line was provided by Harrah's Entertainment (owners of both Harrah's Atlantic City and Caesars Atlantic City) and the Borgata.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The Atlantic City Bus Terminal is the home to local, intrastate and interstate bus companies including NJ Transit, OurBus and Greyhound bus lines. The Greyhound Lucky Streak Express offers service to Atlantic City from New York City, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. In addition to stopping at the Atlantic City Bus Terminal, Greyhound buses stop at various casinos in Atlantic City. Martz Trailways provides bus service to various casinos in Atlantic City from Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and White Haven in Pennsylvania. Klein Transportation provides bus service to various casinos in Atlantic City from Shillington, Douglassville, Royersford, and Audubon in Pennsylvania.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Within the city, public transportation is provided by NJ Transit along 13 routes, including service between the city and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan on the 319 route, and service to and from Atlantic City on routes 501 (to Brigantine Beach), 502 (to Atlantic Cape Community College), 504 (to Ventnor Plaza), 505 (to Longport), 507 (to Ocean City), 508 (to the Hamilton Mall), 509 (to Ocean City), 551 (to Philadelphia), 552 (to Cape May), 553 (to Upper Deerfield Township), 554 (to the Lindenwold PATCO station) and 559 (to Lakewood Township).


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The Atlantic City Jitney Association (ACJA) offers service on four fixed-route lines and on shuttles to and from the rail terminal.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Commercial airlines serve Atlantic City via Atlantic City International Airport, located northwest of the city in Egg Harbor Township. Many travelers also fly into Philadelphia International Airport, Trenton-Mercer Airport, or Newark Liberty International Airport, where there are wider selections of carriers from which to choose. The historic downtown Bader Field airport is now permanently closed and plans are in the works to redevelop the land.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic City International Airport is a focus city for Spirit Airlines. The airport is also served by various scheduled chartered flight companies.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center is a health system based in Atlantic City. Founded in 1898, it includes two hospitals; the Atlantic City Campus and the Mainland Campus in Pomona, New Jersey. It has Atlantic City's only cancer institute, heart institute, and neonatal intensive care unit.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: South Jersey Industries provides natural gas to the city under the South Jersey Gas division. Marina Energy and its subsidiary, Energenic, a joint business venture with a long-time business partner, operate two thermal power stations in the city. The Marina Thermal Plant serves the Borgata while a second plant serves the Resorts Hotel and Casino. Another thermal plant is the Midtown Thermal Control Center on Atlantic and Ohio Avenues built by Conectiv, which opened in 1997 and provides chilled water for hotels and other facilities along the Boardwalk.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Electrical power in Atlantic City as well as the surrounding area is primarily served by Atlantic City Electric, which was incorporated in 1924 and provides power from the Beesley's Point Generating Station in Upper Township, as well as other locations.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: The Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm, opened in 2005, is the first onshore coastal wind farm in the United States. In October 2010, North American Offshore Wind Conference was held in the city and included tours of the facility and potential sites for further development. In February 2011, the state passed legislation permitting the construction of windmills for electricity along pre-existing piers, such as the Steel Pier. The first phase of the Atlantic Wind Connection, a planned electrical transmission backbone along the Jersey Shore was planned to be operational in 2013.


title: Atlantic City, New Jersey

text: Atlantic City has been featured in several aspects of pop culture. Films such as "The King of Marvin Gardens" (1972), "Atlantic City", "The Godfather Part III", "Rounders" and "Snake Eyes" have featured the city, as have television programs such as "Mr. Belvedere", "The Simpsons", "How I Met Your Mother", and "Boardwalk Empire".


title: Cosmology

text: Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term "cosmology" was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's "Glossographia", and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher Christian Wolff, in "Cosmologia Generalis". Religious or mythological cosmology is a body of beliefs based on mythological, religious, and esoteric literature and traditions of creation myths and eschatology. In the science of astronomy it is concerned with the study of the chronology of the universe.


title: Cosmology

text: Physical cosmology is the study of the observable universe's origin, its large-scale structures and dynamics, and the ultimate fate of the universe, including the laws of science that govern these areas. It is investigated by scientists, such as astronomers and physicists, as well as philosophers, such as metaphysicians, philosophers of physics, and philosophers of space and time. Because of this shared scope with philosophy, theories in physical cosmology may include both scientific and non-scientific propositions, and may depend upon assumptions that cannot be tested. Physical cosmology is a sub-branch of astronomy that is concerned with the Universe as a whole. Modern physical cosmology is dominated by the Big Bang theory, which attempts to bring together observational astronomy and particle physics; more specifically, a standard parameterization of the Big Bang with dark matter and dark energy, known as the Lambda-CDM model.


title: Cosmology

text: Theoretical astrophysicist David N. Spergel has described cosmology as a "historical science" because "when we look out in space, we look back in time" due to the finite nature of the speed of light.


title: Cosmology

text: Physics and Astrophysics have played a central role in shaping the understanding of the universe through scientific observation and experiment. Physical cosmology was shaped through both mathematics and observation in an analysis of the whole universe. The universe is generally understood to have begun with the Big Bang, followed almost instantaneously by cosmic inflation, an expansion of space from which the universe is thought to have emerged 13.799 ± 0.021 billion years ago. Cosmogony studies the origin of the Universe, and cosmography maps the features of the Universe.


title: Cosmology

text: In Diderot's Encyclopédie, cosmology is broken down into uranology (the science of the heavens), aerology (the science of the air), geology (the science of the continents), and hydrology (the science of waters).


title: Cosmology

text: Metaphysical cosmology has also been described as the placing of humans in the universe in relationship to all other entities. This is exemplified by Marcus Aurelius's observation that a man's place in that relationship: "He who does not know what the world is does not know where he is, and he who does not know for what purpose the world exists, does not know who he is, nor what the world is."


title: Cosmology

text: Physical cosmology is the branch of physics and astrophysics that deals with the study of the physical origins and evolution of the Universe. It also includes the study of the nature of the Universe on a large scale. In its earliest form, it was what is now known as "celestial mechanics", the study of the heavens. Greek philosophers Aristarchus of Samos, Aristotle, and Ptolemy proposed different cosmological theories. The geocentric Ptolemaic system was the prevailing theory until the 16th century when Nicolaus Copernicus, and subsequently Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei, proposed a heliocentric system. This is one of the most famous examples of epistemological rupture in physical cosmology.


title: Cosmology

text: Isaac Newton's "Principia Mathematica", published in 1687, was the first description of the law of universal gravitation. It provided a physical mechanism for Kepler's laws and also allowed the anomalies in previous systems, caused by gravitational interaction between the planets, to be resolved. A fundamental difference between Newton's cosmology and those preceding it was the Copernican principle—that the bodies on earth obey the same physical laws as all the celestial bodies. This was a crucial philosophical advance in physical cosmology.


title: Cosmology

text: Modern scientific cosmology is usually considered to have begun in 1917 with Albert Einstein's publication of his final modification of general relativity in the paper "Cosmological Considerations of the General Theory of Relativity" (although this paper was not widely available outside of Germany until the end of World War I). General relativity prompted cosmogonists such as Willem de Sitter, Karl Schwarzschild, and Arthur Eddington to explore its astronomical ramifications, which enhanced the ability of astronomers to study very distant objects. Physicists began changing the assumption that the Universe was static and unchanging. In 1922 Alexander Friedmann introduced the idea of an expanding universe that contained moving matter.


title: Cosmology

text: In parallel to this dynamic approach to cosmology, one long-standing debate about the structure of the cosmos was coming to a climax - the Great Debate (1917 to 1922) - with early cosmologists such as Heber Curtis and Ernst Öpik determining that some nebulae seen in telescopes were separate galaxies far distant from our own. While Heber Curtis argued for the idea that spiral nebulae were star systems in their own right as island universes, Mount Wilson astronomer Harlow Shapley championed the model of a cosmos made up of the Milky Way star system only. This difference of ideas came to a climax with the organization of the Great Debate on 26 April 1920 at the meeting of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. The debate was resolved when Edwin Hubble detected Cepheid Variables in the Andromeda Galaxy in 1923 and 1924. Their distance established spiral nebulae well beyond the edge of the Milky Way.


title: Cosmology

text: Subsequent modelling of the universe explored the possibility that the cosmological constant, introduced by Einstein in his 1917 paper, may result in an expanding universe, depending on its value. Thus the Big Bang model was proposed by the Belgian priest Georges Lemaître in 1927 which was subsequently corroborated by Edwin Hubble's discovery of the redshift in 1929 and later by the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson in 1964. These findings were a first step to rule out some of many alternative cosmologies.


title: Cosmology

text: Since around 1990, several dramatic advances in observational cosmology have transformed cosmology from a largely speculative science into a predictive science with precise agreement between theory and observation. These advances include observations of the microwave background from the COBE, WMAP and Planck satellites, large new galaxy redshift surveys including 2dfGRS and SDSS, and observations of distant supernovae and gravitational lensing. These observations matched the predictions of the cosmic inflation theory, a modified Big Bang theory, and the specific version known as the Lambda-CDM model. This has led many to refer to modern times as the "golden age of cosmology".


title: Cosmology

text: On 17 March 2014, astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian announced the detection of gravitational waves, providing strong evidence for inflation and the Big Bang. However, on 19 June 2014, lowered confidence in confirming the cosmic inflation findings was reported.


title: Cosmology

text: On 1 December 2014, at the "Planck 2014" meeting in Ferrara, Italy, astronomers reported that the universe is 13.8 billion years old and is composed of 4.9% atomic matter, 26.6% dark matter and 68.5% dark energy.


title: Cosmology

text: Religious or mythological cosmology is a body of beliefs based on mythological, religious, and esoteric literature and traditions of creation and eschatology.


title: Cosmology

text: Cosmology deals with the world as the totality of space, time and all phenomena. Historically, it has had quite a broad scope, and in many cases was found in religion. In modern use metaphysical cosmology addresses questions about the Universe which are beyond the scope of science. It is distinguished from religious cosmology in that it approaches these questions using philosophical methods like dialectics. Modern metaphysical cosmology tries to address questions such as:


title: Cosmology

text: Table notes: the term "static" simply means not expanding and not contracting. Symbol "G" represents Newton's gravitational constant; Λ (Lambda) is the cosmological constant.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Bobbie Gentry (born Roberta Lee Streeter; July 27, 1942) is a retired American singer-songwriter, who was one of the first female artists in America to compose and produce her own material.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Gentry rose to international fame in 1967 with her Southern Gothic narrative "Ode to Billie Joe". The track spent four weeks at No. 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and was third in the Billboard year-end chart of 1967, earning Gentry Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1968.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Gentry charted 11 singles on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and four singles on the United Kingdom Top 40. Her album "Fancy" brought her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. After her first albums, she had a successful run of variety shows on the Las Vegas Strip. In the late 1970s Gentry lost interest in performing, and subsequently retired from the music industry. News reports conflict on the subject of where she lives.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Gentry was born Roberta Lee Streeter on July 27, 1942, near Woodland in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, to Ruby Lee (née Shipman; November 28, 1920 – April 2, 1989) and Robert Harrison Streeter. After her parents divorced shortly after her birth, her mother moved to California, leaving Gentry to be raised on a farm in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, by her paternal grandparents. She grew up without electricity or plumbing. Her grandmother traded one of the family's milk cows for a neighbor's piano, and, at age seven, Gentry composed her first song, "My Dog Sergeant Is a Good Dog." Gentry lived in Greenwood, Mississippi, with her father for a few years and learned to play the guitar and banjo.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: At age 13, Gentry moved to Palm Springs, California, to live with her then-remarried mother. They performed as a duo, Ruby and Bobbie Meyers, for a short time. Gentry took her stage name from the 1952 film "Ruby Gentry," which she had seen on television. In the film, Ruby (played by Jennifer Jones) was a poor but beautiful girl from the backwoods, who ended up marrying the town tycoon.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: After graduating high school, Gentry moved to Los Angeles to enter UCLA as a philosophy major. She supported herself with clerical jobs, occasionally performing at nightclubs and country clubs, and when she appeared in a revue at Les Folies Bergeres nightclub in Las Vegas, Bob Hope encouraged her to keep performing. She worked as a fashion model, and on June 29, 1962, United Press International circulated a wire photo of Gentry that included Cheryl Crane, daughter of Lana Turner. Gentry transferred to the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, where she took classes in composition, music theory and arranging. While attending a Jody Reynolds concert at a club in Palm Springs in 1966, Gentry asked if she could sit in on one of Reynolds' recording sessions. This led to an invitation to sing on two duets with Reynolds: "Stranger in the Mirror" and "Requiem for Love". The two songs were released in September 1966 by Titan Records, but failed to chart.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Gentry recorded a demo at Whitney Recording Studio in Glendale, California, in February and March 1967. Her sole ambition originally was to write songs to sell to other artists, telling "The Washington Post" that she only sang on the recording of "Ode to Billie Joe" that she took to Capitol because it was cheaper than hiring someone to sing it.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Gentry signed with Capitol Records on June 23, 1967, where staff producer Kelly Gordon would produce "Ode to Billie Joe" as his first full-length album for the label. But it was "Mississippi Delta," intended as the A-side of her first single, that initially got Gentry signed. Her original demo of "Mississippi Delta" was the version issued, but "Ode to Billie Joe" acquired a string arrangement by Jimmie Haskell, dubbed onto the original recording at Capitol. The day after the string session, Capitol's A&R team decided to make "Ode to Billie Joe" the A-side. The single was released on July 10, 1967. It would spend four weeks at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and, on the year-end chart, place number three. The single reached number eight on the "Billboard" Black Singles chart and number 13 on the UK Top 40. It sold more than 3,000,000 copies worldwide. In 2001, "Rolling Stone" magazine listed "Ode to Billie Joe" among "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Following the single's success, the producers quickly assembled the rest of the album from the 12 demos Gentry had recorded, completing overdubs in a matter of days. The result was a unique combination of blues, folk, and jazz elements that rounded out Gentry's recollections of her home, coming across more as a concept album than a hastily assembled collection of songs. Capitol pre-ordered 500,000 copies—the largest pressing of a debut album in the label's prior history. The album hit stores within a month of pressing, on August 21. "Ode to Billie Joe" replaced the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" at the top of the "Billboard" 200 and reached No. 5 on the "Billboard" Black Albums chart. Gentry won three Grammy Awards in 1967, including "Best New Artist" and "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance". She was also named the Academy of Country Music's Most Promising Female Vocalist.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: In February 1968, Gentry took part in the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo competition, as one of two performers of "La Siepe" by Vito Pallavicini and Massara. Capitol released the song concurrently as a single, backed by another Italian tune also recorded by Gentry, "La Città è Grande" by Pallavicini and De Ponti.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Gentry's second album, "The Delta Sweete", was released in February 1968. In its musical ambition, the album represented a decisive step beyond her debut. This concept album drew inspiration from Gentry's Mississippi Delta roots. Most of its sound comes from Gentry, who played almost every instrument on its tracks, including piano, guitar, banjo, bass, and vibes. Nonetheless, Capitol's Kelly Gordon, producer of Gentry's first work for the label, also received the entire producing credit for "The Delta Sweete." The album earned Gentry two more entries on the "Billboard" Hot 100. "Okolona River Bottom Band" peaked at number 54, while her cover of "Louisiana Man" made it to number 100. Although the album failed to match the success of its predecessor, only reaching number 132 on the "Billboard" 200, critics have called it one of the unacclaimed masterpieces of the 1960s.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Impressed with Gentry's performances on- and off-screen, the head of the BBC invited her, in 1968, to host a variety show on BBC 2, making her the first female songwriter to host a series on the network. With help from producer Stanley Dorfman, she made six half-hour episodes that aired weekly from July 13 to August 17 of that year. Dorfman told author Tara Murtha, "After a few episodes, she was pretty much co-directing the show because she had such great ideas. [But] the BBC wouldn't have it, wouldn't have an artist credited as a director or producer, so the credit went to me as producer and director. But she definitely contributed as much as I did creatively to the show. She was just full of ideas."


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Following "The Delta Sweete", Capitol released Gentry's third album, "Local Gentry", in August 1968. It failed to appear on any of the "Billboard" album charts, but did peak at number 83 on the "Cashbox" Top 100 Albums chart.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: In September, one month after the release of "Local Gentry,"the artist's third album of 1968 came out. "Bobbie Gentry and Glen Campbell" features duets with label mate Glen Campbell. Their chemistry made the partnership a great success. The album peaked at number 11 on the "Billboard" Top LP's chart and number one on the Top Country LP's chart. It was also certified Gold by the RIAA and earned Gentry and Campbell the Academy of Country Music award for Album of the Year. Gentry was also nominated for Top Female Vocalist.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Gentry produced a second series of shows for BBC2 in 1969, which aired weekly from June 18 to July 23.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Gentry's fifth album, "Touch 'Em with Love", came out in July 1969. It marked a transition in her career: In an attempt to re-brand Gentry as a blue-eyed soul singer, it featured fewer self-penned regional songs and more systematically chosen cover songs. Recorded in Nashville and produced by Kelso Herston, the album's 10 tracks included only two originals. The title track was released as the first single, but it failed to go above number 113 on "Billboard"'s Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart and only reached number 164 on the "Billboard" 200. Gentry's cover of "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" was released as the second single in the UK, where it became a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart. The album reached number 21 on the UK Albums Chart.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: In 1969, Gentry taped four television specials for Canadian television station CFTO-TV Toronto for North American syndication.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: April 1970 saw the release of "Fancy", Gentry's sixth album in three years. Like 1969's "Touch 'Em with Love", it contains only covers, except for the artist's self-penned title track. Most of the album was recorded at Fame Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with producer Rick Hall. "Fancy," released as the album's first single, became Gentry's biggest hit since "Ode to Billie Joe", peaking within the top 40 in the US, Canada, and Australia. Of the song Gentry herself said, "Fancy is my strongest statement for women's lib, if you really listen to it. I agree wholeheartedly with that movement and all the serious issues that [it stands] for—equality, equal pay, day care centers, and abortion rights," she explained to "After Dark" magazine in 1974.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: The album's first European single, a cover of "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head", peaked at number 40. The album's second North American single, "He Made a Woman Out of Me", did not reach the same heights as "Fancy", reaching only number 71 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Gentry would be nominated for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female at the 13th Annual Grammy Awards.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: In early 1971, Gentry produced a third and final series of shows for BBC 2, also consisting of six weekly episodes (aired from February 1 to March 15 of that year).


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Gentry released "Patchwork" in April 1971. It has been described as a collection of short stories in song, ranging from country and pop to blues, stitched together with cinematic interludes to form a cohesive whole. "Patchwork" was Gentry's first entirely self-written and -produced album. Its first single: "But I Can't Get Back", was a small hit, peaking at number 37 on the "Billboard" Top 40 Easy Listening chart and number 93 in Canada. Gentry would release one more single for Capitol in August 1972, "The Girl from Cincinnati".


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Around the time "Patchwork" was released, the entire executive board that had been at Capitol throughout Gentry's career was fired. A major restructuring at Capitol took place as parent company EMI tried to seize back control and rekindle the label's dwindling profits. This saw the artist roster slashed from 247 to 81 alongside extensive cuts to production and marketing budgets. With none of the executive board left that had known and worked with her, negotiations stalled over the renewal terms of Gentry's contract, and this failure to reach an agreement with Capitol created a stalemate. Since Gentry was unwilling to release an album with Capitol on the terms offered, she found herself unable to release an album on another label, meaning she was left with no choice but to wait out the remaining option period of her contract.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: In 1974, she hosted a summer replacement variety show on CBS called "The Bobbie Gentry Happiness Hour". The show, which was her version of Glen Campbell's hit series "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour", was not renewed for a full season.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: In 1975, Gentry wrote and performed "Another Place, Another Time" for writer-director Max Baer, Jr.'s film "Macon County Line". Following the film's success the song was released on a promotional 7-inch single. In 1976, Baer directed the feature film "Ode to Billy Joe", based on Gentry's hit song and starring Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor. In the movie, the mystery of the title character's suicide is revealed as a part of the conflict between his love for Bobbie Lee Hartley and a drunken homosexual experience. Warner Bros. Records released a soundtrack of the score by Michel Legrand, including a re-recorded version of "Ode to Billie Joe", re-titled "Ode to Billy Joe" to match the film's title, with Gentry stating that the original spelling was an error. Warner Bros. released the new version as a single and Capitol re-released the original version, which gave Gentry two concurrent chart placings with the same song. The re-recording would go on to be Gentry's last single to chart, meaning that her first and last chart entries are the same song.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: In 1977 Gentry reunited with producer Rick Hall in Muscle Shoals to record an album for the Curb Records division of Warner Bros. Records (unlike Gentry's 1969 "Fancy" album, Gentry's 1977 recording sessions with Hall were not at his FAME Studios but at the nearby Music Mill Studio). After an advance single: "Steal Away", had an unsuccessful February 1978 release, the album was shelved. "Steal Away" - a remake of the 1964 Jimmy Hughes hit which had inaugurated FAME Studios hit streak - had as its B-side: the Patti Dahlstrom composition "He Did Me Wrong, But He Did It Right": these tracks plus three additional tracks from Gentry's 1977 recording sessions: "Slow Cookin'" (written by Abby Marable), "Sweet Country" (written by Gentry), and "Thunder in the Afternoon" (written by Mac Davis, Rita Grimm and Yvonne Norman), would be released on the 1992 European compilation album "Ode to Billie Joe".


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Gentry appeared as a guest on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" on Christmas Day 1978. She attended the Best of Vegas Awards on March 21, 1980.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: On May 10, 1981, Gentry was one of many celebrity guests to take part in "An All-Star Salute to Mother's Day". During the television special she performed "Mama, a Rainbow" from the musical "Minnie's Boys" for her mother who was seated in the audience. This would prove to be Gentry's final public performance.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: The last time Gentry appeared in public was when she attended the Academy of Country Music Awards on April 30, 1982. She was 39 years old. Since that time, she has not recorded, performed or been interviewed. One 2016 news report stated that Gentry lives in a gated community near Memphis, Tennessee. According to another, Gentry lives in a gated community in Los Angeles.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Gentry married casino magnate Bill Harrah on December 18, 1969, when he was 58 years old and she was 27. The couple divorced April 16, 1970. She married Thomas R. Toutant on August 17, 1976, whom she divorced on August 1, 1978. On October 15, 1978, Gentry married singer and comedian Jim Stafford with whom she had a son, Tyler Gentry Stafford. Gentry and Stafford divorced in September 1980.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Gentry charted 11 singles on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and four singles in the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: Beth Orton recorded a song titled "Bobby Gentry" featured on her "The Other Side of Daybreak" album. Jill Sobule recorded "Where Is Bobbie Gentry?" for her album "California Years". Gentry's 1969 composition "Fancy" provided a top 10 country hit for Reba McEntire in 1991.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: On May 14, 2012, BBC Radio 2 in the UK broadcast a documentary titled "Whatever Happened to Bobbie Gentry?" presented by country music artist Rosanne Cash.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: In September 2018, an eight-disc box set titled "" featuring all of Gentry's recordings for Capitol was released.


title: Bobbie Gentry

text: In February 2019, Mercury Rev released "Bobbie Gentry's the Delta Sweete Revisited", which was called a "reimagining of Bobbie Gentry's forgotten masterpiece."


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 15th largest municipality in Pennsylvania.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: Harrisburg lies on the east bank of the Susquehanna River. It is the larger principal city of the Harrisburg–Carlisle metropolitan statistical area, also known as the Susquehanna Valley, which had a 2020 population of 591,712, making it the fourth most populous metropolitan area in Pennsylvania after the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Lehigh Valley metropolitan areas.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: Harrisburg played a role in American history during the Westward Migration, the American Civil War, and the Industrial Revolution. During part of the 19th century, the building of the Pennsylvania Canal and later the Pennsylvania Railroad allowed Harrisburg to develop into one of the most industrialized cities in the Northeastern United States. In the mid-to-late 20th century, the city's economic fortunes fluctuated with its major industries consisting of government, heavy manufacturing, agriculture, and food services.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: The Pennsylvania Farm Show, the largest indoor agriculture exposition in the United States, was first held in Harrisburg in 1917 and has been held there every early-to-mid January since then. The city also hosts the annual Great American Outdoor Show, the largest of its kind in the world, among many other events. Harrisburg experienced the Three Mile Island accident on March 28, 1979, in nearby Middletown.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: In 2010, "Forbes" rated Harrisburg as the second-best place in the U.S. to raise a family. Despite the city's past financial troubles, in 2010 "The Daily Beast" website ranked 20 metropolitan areas across the country as being recession-proof, and the Harrisburg region was ranked seventh. The financial stability of the region is in part due to the high concentration of state and federal government agencies.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: Harrisburg is located miles southwest of Allentown, Pennsylvania's third-largest city, and northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's largest city.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: Harrisburg's site along the Susquehanna River is thought to have been inhabited by Native Americans as early as 3000 BC. Known to the Native Americans as "Peixtin", or "Paxtang", the area was an important resting place and crossroads for Native American traders, as the trails leading from the Delaware to the Ohio rivers, and from the Potomac to the Upper Susquehanna intersected there. The first European contact with Native Americans in Pennsylvania was made by the Englishman, Captain John Smith, who journeyed from Virginia up the Susquehanna River in 1608 and visited with the Susquehanna tribe. In 1719, John Harris, Sr., an English trader, settled here and 14 years later secured grants of in this vicinity. In 1785, John Harris, Jr. made plans to lay out a town on his father's land, which he named Harrisburg. In the spring of 1785, the town was formally surveyed by William Maclay, who was a son-in-law of John Harris, Sr. In 1791, Harrisburg became incorporated, and in October 1812 it was named the Pennsylvania state capital, which it has remained ever since. The assembling here of the highly sectional Harrisburg Convention in 1827 (signaling what may have been the birth of lobbying on a national scale) led to the passage of the high protective-tariff bill of 1828. In 1839, William Henry Harrison and John Tyler were nominated for president and vice president of the United States at the first national convention of the Whig Party of the United States, which was held in Harrisburg.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: Before Harrisburg gained its first industries, it was a scenic, pastoral town, typical of most of the day: compact and surrounded by farmland. In 1822, the impressive brick capitol was completed for $200,000.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: It was Harrisburg's strategic location which gave it an advantage over many other towns. It was settled as a trading post in 1719 at a location important to Westward expansion. The importance of the location was that it was at a pass in a mountain ridge. The Susquehanna River flowed generally west to east at this location, providing a route for boat traffic from the east. The head of navigation was a short distance northwest of the town, where the river flowed through the pass. Persons arriving from the east by boat had to exit at Harrisburg and prepare for an overland journey westward through the mountain pass. Harrisburg assumed importance as a provisioning stop at this point where westward bound pioneers transitioned from river travel to overland travel. It was partly because of its strategic location that the state legislature selected the small town of Harrisburg to become the state capital in 1812.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: The grandeur of the Colonial Revival capitol dominated the quaint town. The streets were dirt, but orderly and platted in grid pattern. The Pennsylvania Canal was built in 1834 and coursed the length of the town. The residential houses were situated on only a few city blocks stretching southward from the capitol. They were mostly one story. No factories were present but there were blacksmith shops and other businesses.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: During the first part of the 19th century, Harrisburg was a notable stopping place along the Underground Railroad, as persons escaping slavery utilized the Susquehanna River to access food and supplies before heading north towards Canada.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: During the American Civil War, Harrisburg was a significant training center for the Union Army, with tens of thousands of troops passing through Camp Curtin. It was also a major rail center for the Union and a vital link between the Atlantic coast and the Midwest, with several railroads running through the city and spanning the Susquehanna River. As a result of this importance, it was a target of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia during its two invasions. The first time during the 1862 Maryland Campaign, when Lee planned to capture the city after taking Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, but was prevented from doing so by the Battle of Antietam and his subsequent retreat back into Virginia. The second attempt was made during the Gettysburg Campaign in 1863 and was more substantial. Under orders from Gen. Robert E. Lee directly, Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps were tasked with capturing Harrisburg and disrupting the vital Union supply and rail lines. However Ewell's forces were intercepted by the forces of the Department of the Susquehanna under the command of Union Maj. Gen. Darius N. Couch in a series of skirmishes surrounding the city, such as the Skirmish of Sporting Hill in Camp Hill, just west of Harrisburg. The Second Corp were ultimately unsuccessful in both overcoming the local Union defenses and crossing the rain bloated Susquehanna into Harrisburg itself, and were forced to retreat southward to regroup with Lee's main Confederate force. This attempt marked the northernmost advance of the Confederate Army during the Civil War.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: On July 3, 1863, the artillery barrage that marked the beginning of Pickett's Charge of the Battle of Gettysburg was heard from Harrisburg, almost 40 miles away.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: Harrisburg's importance in the latter half of the 19th century was in the steel industry. It was an important railroad center as well. Steel and iron became dominant industries. Steel and other industries continued to play a major role in the local economy throughout the latter part of the 19th century. The city was the center of enormous railroad traffic and its steel industry supported large furnaces, rolling mills, and machine shops. The Pennsylvania Steel Company plant, which opened in nearby Steelton in 1866, was the first in the country; later operated by Bethlehem Steel.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: As industries nationwide entered a phase of great expansion and technological improvement, so did industries – and in particular the steel industry – in Harrisburg. This can be attributed to a combination of factors that were typical of what existed in other successful industrial cities: rapid rail expansion; nearby markets for goods; and nearby sources for raw product.


title: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

text: With Harrisburg poised for growth in steel production, the Borough of Steelton became the ideal location for this type of industry. It was a wide swath of flat land located south of the city, with rail and canal access running its entire 4 mile length. There was plenty of room for houses and its own downtown section. Steelton was a company town, opened in 1866 by the Pennsylvania Steel Company. Highly innovative in its steel making process, it became the first mill in the United States to make steel railroad rails by contract. In its heyday Steelton was home to more than 16,000 residents from 33 different ethnic groups. All were employed in the steel industry, or had employment in services that supported it. In the late 19th century, no less than five major steel mills and foundries were located in Steelton. Each contained a maze of buildings; conveyances for moving the products; large yards for laying down equipment; and facilities for loading their product on trains. Stacks from these factories constantly belched smoke. With housing and a small downtown area within walking distance, these were the sights and smells that most Steelton residents saw every day.