Postcard:Chalfonte Hotel and Boardwalk by Moonlight, Atlantic City, N.J.

Visitors first arrived at Atlantic City in 1854, welcomed by small boarding houses perched along the beach. Because Atlantic City sat conveniently between New York and Philadelphia, residents of both cities enjoyed a change of scenery and entertainment without traveling a great distance. By 1874 nearly 500,000 passengers arrived at the resort town annually by train, a number that continued to grow. Before the end of the decade, two additional railroad lines had to be constructed to accommodate the ever-expanding crowds.