New Jersey's Trolley Heritage

New Jersey’s Trolley Heritage is a photographic essay of trolley cars that once served Atlantic City, Ocean City, and Wildwood, plus the modernized Newark City subway, along with the new Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Line and River Line.

From 1889 to 1955, electric trolley cars served commuters and vacationers in Atlantic City. Between 1938 and 1955, Atlantic City operated twenty-five streamlined Brilliners known as the Miss America Fleet, the largest fleet of these cars in service in the United States.

The Shore Fast Line connected Atlantic City via Pleasantville and Somers Point to Ocean City. A portion of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines was used by the Shore Fast Line. Open summer cars operated in Wildwood until it closed in 1945. After trolley service ended in Atlantic City, Newark’s City Subway was New Jersey’s only remaining trolley line until New Jersey Transit opened the Hudson-Bergen Line in 2000, that by 2011, linked North Bergen with Hoboken, Jersey City, and Bayonne.

New Jersey’s Trolley Heritage documents an important part of the state’s trolley history including the River Line, which opened in 2004, connecting Camden with Trenton.