The Atlantic Hotel opened July 4, 1875. Besides the beach and ocean it offered dancing and billiard rooms to the visitors of its more than 400 rooms. By 1878 tourists could come by railroad from Berlin to the shores of Sinepuxent Bay. By 1881 a line was completed to the shore. Today it is one of the east coast's most popular resorts.
Ocean City is in Worcester County, Maryland.
It is the only part of the state that fronts the sea. The county is connected to the Chesapeake Bay via the Pokomoke River. The county was settled primarily by Eastern Shore Virginians in the latter part of the 17th Century. The first white man came under a French flag in 1524. Giovani de Verannzo, a Florentine explorer, landed in the approximate area of what is now Chincoteague Bay.