Steps: 3,228,128
Miles: 1348.55
Margate City is located on 8.1-mile long Absecon Island, along with Atlantic City, Ventnor City, and Longport. The city stretches approximately eight blocks from the Atlantic Ocean to the bay at most points in town. Marven Gardens, of Monopoly board game fame, is located in Margate City.
Marven Gardens is famous as a Yellow property on the original Atlantic City version of the Monopoly game board, although the game misspelled the name as Marvin Gardens. It is the only property on the game board that is not located within Atlantic City. The name Marven Gardens is said to be derived from MARgate City and VENtnor City, because it lies on the border of Margate City and Ventnor City. Most of the homes were built in the 1920s and 1930s.
Margate City is also the home of Lucy the Elephant, a large wooden elephant 65 ft (19.7 m) tall.
Lucy the Elephant is a six-story elephant-shaped architectural folly constructed of wood and tin sheeting in 1882 by James V. Lafferty, in an effort to sell real estate and attract tourism. The idea of an animal-shaped building was innovative, and in 1882 the U.S. Patent Office granted Lafferty a patent giving him the exclusive right to make, use or sell animal-shaped buildings for seventeen years. Lucy is the oldest example of zoomorphic architecture, and the largest elephant in the world.
Lucy's head shape identifies her as an Asian Elephant. She has tusks, which is a feature found only in male Asian elephants. In the first few years following her construction she was referred to as a male, however she is now generally considered to be female.
4 comments:
I remember seeing the signs for Margate City, but we didn't go there. We've been to Atlantic City three times, and when we took the kids the second time, we stayed at a motel just outside the city after coming up from Wildwood. Terri and I wanted to go back there for our 25th wedding anniversary, but we never made it...lack of money. The reason all of our vacation plans have been put on hold lately. :(
Someday....
Thanks for the pics, Iggy.
That was an interesting structure to say the least....
What's inside Lucy? Crazy seeing a building shaped like an elephant, especially a gender challenged one, lol.
Marvin - Lucy the Elephant is open daily for tours. Entry is gained through the ten-foot-diameter rear legs. Each has a door and a set of spiral stairs that climb into the main body cavity. The two center doors open into another set of stairwells that climb into the patio-sized howdah on Lucy's back for a panoramic view of sky and surf. What the inside of the elephant looks like.
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