Editing Barnegat Light, New Jersey (section)

===Barnegat City===
In 1881, the Barnegat City Improvement Company was formed by Benjamin Franklin Archer, William F. Bailey, and a group of Camden, New Jersey investors.<ref>[http://www.barnegatlight.org/barnegat-light/history/ History], Borough of Barnegat Light. Accessed July 26, 2016.</ref> They intended to capitalize on the success of Atlantic City, as well as the then-popular temperance and health resort movements.<ref>Lloyd, pgs. 41, 47.</ref> They laid out streets, housing lots, hotels, a port, and a railroad, calling their planned seaside resort Barnegat City, emulating its popular southern neighbor Atlantic City. Their vision enjoyed limited success, as the city increased its already established reputation as a small but popular destination for sailors, sport fishermen, and hunters from Philadelphia and New York City, who in the early 1880s arrived on regional rail lines for part of the way and a steamboat across the bay to waiting carriages on the Island. Or in the earliest days, by traditional horse-drawn carriage the entire way to the bay steamboats. The 1886 construction of a railroad from Whiting and Toms River to the Island made the trip faster and easier, but still not as direct or convenient as that built for Philadelphians to Atlantic City. Local concerns lobbied for years to have a direct rail route constructed, but those efforts failed to make the Island as convenient and affordable of a day-trip to those in Philadelphia as Atlantic City was. Those coming from New York City took a ferry to Long Branch, then railroad to Toms River, and finally a steamboat from Toms River down Barnegat Bay to Barnegat City. The SS ''Hesse'', a ship chartered by the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]], began providing transport into Barnegat City for passengers largely originating from New York City and [[Trenton, New Jersey|Trenton]]. This ship was later replaced by the ''Connetquot''. The Oceanic Hotel, Sunset Hotel (initially San Souci Hotel), and Social were built as part of the original BCIC plan. The Oceanic opened in 1882, the Sunset in 1883, and the Social in 1884. The large Oceanic Hotel, located on East 4th Street, would be moved 300 feet west barely a year after opening due to sudden erosion threatening the hotel, which was placed atop leveled dunes at the very edge of the beach.

The Ashley House was sold to John Warner Kinsey in 1882, who rebranded it the Kinsey Hotel. He sold the old hotel not long after, the Ashley being antiquated and badly in need of repairs to compete with its larger more modern new neighbors in town. The hotel stood empty until 1887 when it was torn down. Between 1884 and 1886, a direct railroad connection was completed to increase the Island's tourism capabilities. The first train reached Barnegat City on June 28, 1886. The lighthouse keeper's house was greatly expanded in 1889 by the Federal Lighthouse Bureau to house the head keeper, his two assistants, and their families. During the [[Spanish–American War]], signal houses were hurriedly constructed up and down the east coast, one of which was built in Barnegat City whose staff were charged with watching the seas for signs of Spanish ships. The brief war ended, however, before the houses could be put into service.

Barnegat City became part of Long Beach Township after the township's establishment in 1899. In 1904, the city declared itself an independent borough and Barnegat City became the first officially recognized name for the storied old northern point of Long Beach Island.<ref name=Story />

In 1914, an automobile bridge was built next to the railroad bridge at the midpoint of the Island at Ship Bottom, eventually attracting more to the Island when roads and automobiles were plentiful but also increasing the devastating near term decline in railroad passenger and freight traffic vital to the Island's trade and tourist economy, as well as livelihoods of most residents. In 1919, the struggling Oceanic Hotel sold and the somewhat more successful Sunset Hotel, catering to seasonal water fowl hunters, was purchased by John Barber. In 1928, Kaetzel's Hotel and Bar was opened on West 7th Street by Paul and Toni Kaetzel. The bar was later purchased by Philadelphia bar owners Adamas "Pop" Kubelczikas and his wife Helena "Mom" Kubelczikas. They renamed the then bar and grill Kubel's Bar, which still operates today.

A severe winter storm in 1920 caused significant erosion of the shoreline from the lighthouse to East and West 8th streets on the bay and ocean side of Barnegat City, eroding the shore up to the base of the lighthouse and prompting the abandonment and removal of the keeper's house by the [[United States Lighthouse Service]]. The Oceanic Hotel owner planned to open it in the spring of 1920, but limited prospects for turning a profit and the dangerously close tides caused him to sell the hotel for salvage. Locals stripped and demolished the hotel a section at the time from the east end. The 1920 winter caused some damage to the hotel as well. Life-Saving Station No. 17 also had to be moved from its site at the end of East 5th Street to the middle of the block on East 7th Street. It was later replaced by a modern station across the street which still stands today as the Borough Hall. On the bay side, the port at 6th Street, populated by docks, boats, and fisherman and their families living in small cottages, began to erode as the inlet current wrapped around the contour of Barnegat City and scoured away at it from both sides. The disappearing town, as newspapers morbidly began writing of Barnegat City, which included frequent claims of the lighthouse near toppling and, in some sensationalist cases, claims that the lighthouse had toppled in a most recent storm, saw the end of the developers dreams from 1881. The block upon block of cottages they envisioned would be built, but it would take the next 60 years to be completed. In 1923, train service was discontinued from Barnegat City Junction at Ship Bottom to the entire north end of the Island, including the towns of Surf City and Harvey Cedars, and the tracks taken up shortly after due to low ridership, increasing maintenance costs to keep the aging railways passable, dilapidated locomotives and cars, and the growth of automobile traffic. This fate would follow for the southern branch of the Island railroad in 1935 when the train bridge was washed out in a nor'easter, while the regional shore lines would shutter in the 1940s.

A series of disasters in the area occurred during the 1930s, beginning with the destruction of the Sunset Hotel by fire in June 1932. On April 4, 1933, the Airship [[USS Akron (ZRS-4)|USS ''Akron'']] crashed in the sea off Barnegat Light, resulting in the deaths of 73 of the airship's crew of 76, still the most deadly airship disaster on record.<ref>via [[Associated Press]]. [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/31/forgotten-airship-crash/2040031/ "Forgotten airship disaster recalled 80 years later"], ''[[USA Today]]'', March 31, 2013. Accessed September 23, 2013. "The Akron crashed off the community of Barnegat Light just a few hours after taking off from Lakehurst, killing 73 of the 76 men aboard, largely because the ship had no life vests and only one rubber raft, according to Navy records and the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society."</ref> In the era of airships from the late 1910s to the 1940s, nearby Navy base Lakehurst operated as the east coast port for all lighter-than-air traffic, including international flights from legendary craft such as the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg. The Barnegat lighthouse and the inlet acted as a navigational point for airships from Lakehurst, making them a common sight in the skies above Barnegat City and parts of the Island. During World War II, airships were often seen as part of merchant convoys, providing anti-submarine services.

Barnegat City's [[commercial fishing]] economy improved with a pound boat fishery opened by Captain Dick Myers in 1920, who built a dock at West 6th Street replacing the old eroded port. Also by the 1920s, a wave of immigration since 1900 had changed Barnegat City's makeup as fishermen from Norway, Sweden, and Finland came to local waters after hearing of its reputation and solicitations from Myers to work his pound nets. In 1927 these [[Scandinavia]]n fisherman united to form the Independent Fish Company and bought land further south to build their own dock complex that spanned West 17th to West 20th streets and remains active today. During this period, [[gillnet]]ting declined in popularity, but it would later gain a comeback in the 1950s. Also in the 1950s, dragger fishing was ended and [[tilefish]]ing began, the latter taking into the early 1970s before it became a profitable fishery and backbone, along with scalloping, of the evolving Barnegat Light commercial fishing industry.

The Independent Fish Company docks are now known as Viking Village and today provide a combined shopping and industrial establishment with both handcrafted goods and fresh seafood. Catches typically consist of [[scallop]]s, [[tuna]], [[swordfish]], tilefish, [[weakfish]], [[monkfish]], [[bluefish]], [[shad]], [[Squalidae|dogfish]], and various other types of in-shore fish. In the 1960s and 1970s, foreign [[Commercial trawler|trawlers]], many international, were permitted to fish in the area, coming within a few miles of shore and fishing out several key species. Nearly all of the [[cod]] have been fished out of the area along with blue fish.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fishingnj.org/bizzvik.htm |title=New Jersey Fishing: Viking Village, Inc. |access-date=May 6, 2007| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070404084832/http://www.fishingnj.org/bizzvik.htm| archive-date=April 4, 2007 | url-status=live}}</ref> The scallop boat ''Lindsay L'', docked at Viking Village, was used in the movie ''[[The Perfect Storm (film)|The Perfect Storm]]''.<ref>[http://www.nj.com/munchmobile/ledger/index.ssf?/munchmobile/ledger/stories/njshore_05.html Munchmobile: Jersey Shore], accessed May 6, 2007</ref>