Long known as one of the top vacation destinations on the East Coast, Wildwood, New Jersey has a great number of attractions and activities that continue to satisfy and please visitors year in and year out. The city was founded in the late 1800s and almost immediately became a popular tourist destination. With its numerous hotels, many still showing their original doo-wop style of architecture, and the famous boardwalk, Wildwood is uniquely outfitted with not only the normal trappings one would find in a beach front resort community, but also the extra things that make a vacation truly special. Here are ten little known facts about Wildwood, New Jersey.
1. Morey’s Piers is one of the most famous attractions in the city of Wildwood. It features more than one hundred amusement park rides and attractions including roller coasters, the tallest Ferris wheel on the east coast and more.
2. Since 1970, the area has hosted the yearly New Jersey State Fireman’s Convention.
3. Before being incorporated as a city in 1912, the area that is now known as Wildwood was a New Jersey borough known as Holly Beach City.
4. The community’s high school athletic teams are known as the Wildwood Warriors.
5. Wildwood’s famous boardwalk has an equally famous tram car that runs its entire length joining the community with North Wildwood. The Tramcar, as it is known, is a trackless train that was first established in the early 1950s.
6. The boardwalk that stretches along the city’s ocean coast is home to a chapel that holds nightly services that are open to any and all travelers to the area all summer long.
7. Pop singer Bobby Rydell sings a song titled Wildwood Days which is about the community.
8. The off season population of the city is a little over 5,000 permanent residents, during the summer months it is not uncommon for well over 200,000 people to fill the it.
9. Wildwood’s claim as the birthplace of rock and roll comes from it being the first place where Bill Haley & His Comets performed what is widely thought of to be the first rock and roll song, Rock Around the Clock. This happened over Memorial Day weekend in 1954 at the HofBrau Hotel.
10. One of the largest and most famous Ultimate Frisbee beach tournaments is held every year on the waterfront of Wildwood, New Jersey.
With just one visit to this Atlantic Ocean community, it is easy to see why Wildwood has maintained its high level of popularity with vacationers for more than one hundred years. The city offers a great mix of nostalgia, as well as modern tourist attractions and features, in a way that will surely satisfy anyone lucky enough to plan a trip there in the near future. Wildwood, New Jersey is truly one of the Northeast’s true vacation treasures.
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