A Look Back
By Fred Miller
Ocean City was founded in 1879 by the Honorable Simon Lake, Rev. S. Wesley Lake, Rev. Ezra B/ Lake, Rev. James E. Lake, Rev. William H. Burrell, and Rev. William B. Wood. The decisions they made in 1879 and 1880 laid the foundation for America’s greatest family resort.
The founders knew that for the town to grow and prosper it had to be accessible to people from New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
During the first year, they organized the Pleasantville and Ocean City Rail Road Company. A railroad was laid from Pleasantville to Somers Point and on Oct. 26, 1880, trains began to make daily trips to Somers Point. Passengers would exit the train and board a steamboat for the short trip across the bay to Ocean City.
Nov. 24, 1884, was a special day in Ocean City. It was on that day that the West Jersey Railroad began operating trains from Sea Isle City into Ocean City. The railroad crossed Corson’s Inlet entering the southern end of Ocean City, continuing north to Eighth Street station.
By the summer of 1885, there were three train routes to Ocean City: Philadelphia to Atlantic City, to Longport, steamboat to Ocean City; Philadelphia to Somers Point, steamboat to Ocean City; and the all-rail route, Philadelphia to Ocean City, through Sea Isle City.
William B. Wood, president of the Ocean City Association, wrote the following in 1885: “It must be plain to all that we have passed the crises in the history of Ocean City. Our existence, development, rapid advancement, is no longer a problem—it is an assured fact. We have astonished even the railroad men as well as others, the snort of the iron horse and the shrill whistle of the locomotive will hereafter be familiar to our people.”
