the rix mix

Long Branch Amusement Pier & boardwalk

It appears to be in decline in the postcard.  Eventually the boardwalk & most of the pier were destroyed in 1987 by a "suspicious" fire. Pier & boardwalk fires are always "suspicious".

In a terrible abuse of eminent domain, the government of Long Branch condemned practically every house within two blocks of the waterfront for the construction of  condos. Many of the homes had  passed through three generations of family. Most took the money & went, but a handful of home owners struggled on for years through the courts, eventually winning a victory that may have been Pyrrhic. I don't know; I haven't to the town in years. Nothing remaining there to interest me.

It was not unusual in the Sixties & Seventies to boardwalk hop from Long Branch to Asbury Park to Point Pleasant Beach to Seaside Heights. Whether or not you stopped off at a boardwalk depended on  how fast & how close you  could find a parking place on the street.  But if you made it all the way to  Seaside Heights you always parked, no matter how distant.