Its rooms totaled more than 600, and its grounds covered some 14 acres.' 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. It opened while it was still under construction, with only one wing standing, and even that wasn't completed. It was a sprawling, four-story structure built to house 2,000 guests. 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': '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. In Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, 'Atlantic City's Godfather' Nelson Johnson describes the inspiration of Dr. By 1874, almost 500,000 passengers a year were coming to Atlantic City by rail. 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.

Built on the edge of the bay, this served as the direct link of this remote parcel of land with Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The city was incorporated in 1854, the same year in which the Camden and Atlantic Railroad train service began.

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