The Monopoly Connection That’s Still Alive in EHT and Mays Landing

We all know that the ultimate board game, Monopoly, is based on Atlantic City right?

It's got quite a history, in that a lot of the streets from the original board game are still around today.

Some streets have changed names, others are no longer quite what they were "back in the day."

Today's question, is there some Monopoly history in the Egg Harbor Township and Mays Landing area?

The answer is Yes!

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It's the "Atlantic County Bikeway" - also known by locals in Egg Harbor Township and Mays Landing as simply "the bike path" - the path that runs from the "Shore Mall Area" (even though it's no longer called the Shore Mall) all the way along New Jersey Avenue and then to the outskirts of Mays Landing.

For those who use the bikepath, it's a real gem: 7.6 miles of blacktop in the middle of trees - a little escape from the nearby traffic and congestion that springs up, especially during morning and afternoon drive times.

Believe it or not, the Bikeway has it's roots in the Pennsylvania Railroad, one of the four railroads featured on the original Monopoly game!

According to Traillink.com

"The bikeway got its start as the West Jersey and Atlantic Railroad, a 40-mile subsidiary of the West Jersey Railroad’s parent Pennsylvania Railroad. Completed in 1880, the tracks ran from Newfield to near Atlantic City. It later became known as the Newfield Branch of the West Jersey & Seashore Railroad, another subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and eventually became part of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines. The railroad stopped using the western half of the line between Newfield and Mays Landing in 1958 and the remainder in 1966."

Following some construction, the bikeway opened in 2003, and has been used by locals (and others) every since.

It's another local "gem."