Atlantic City, N. J., a city in Atlantic co., 60 mi. s. e. of Philadelphia, on divisions of the Pennsylvania and the Reading railroads. The city is a popular seaside resort and is built on Absecom Beach, a sandy island about ten miles long by three quarters of a mile wide, lying four to five miles from the mainland. The streets are broad and are named after the states in the Union, and a wide board walk four miles long forms the favorite promenade along the ocean. There are several miles of excellent bathing beach, while boating, fishing and hunting are also popular amusements. Nearly a hundred hotels and boarding houses accommodate the visitors, while Atlantic City Hospital, Mercer Memorial Home for Invalid Women and the Children's Seashore Home are prominent institutions. The existence of the city as a summer resort dates from about 1854, when the Camden & Atlantic railroad was completed. A fire in April, 1902, destroyed several hotels and a number of smaller structures, and thereafter all buildings erected within the city limits were required to be fireproof. Atlantic City is probably the most important all-the-year-round resort in the United States. Its climate and hotel accommodations are such that people visit the place even in the midst of winter. The census gave the population in 1910, as 46,150, while the transient population in summer is variously estimated from 250,000 to 300,000.