On Our Boardwalks

Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring—season after season, year after year—the boardwalks of Sea Girt and Spring Lake hum with life. They feel as if they’ve always been there for early-morning walkers, sandy-footed children, and sunset strollers. Yet these wooden roads alongside the mighty Atlantic hold history. 

Spring Lake 

Long before Spring Lake built its oceanfront boardwalk, there were boards circling the lake and wrapping around the Essex and Sussex Hotel. In the late 1800s, hotel owners favored wooden walkways because they kept sand out of their lobbies. In 1896, much of the oceanfront boardwalk washed away. Then, after a devastating fire in 1900, the town voted to build a larger, sturdier walkway in time for the opening of the New Monmouth Hotel. But a full extension along the oceanfront would have to wait, as the Great Depression slowed everything down. 

That changed in 1937. As part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) set out to build a concrete-piled boardwalk along Ocean Avenue. During those lean years, men labored long, hard hours to create the two-mile stretch that would become the town’s signature promenade. 

By then, Spring Lake was already a summer jewel—grand hotels, sprawling estates, and Victorian charm. The new boardwalk heightened its allure. Today it remains the longest uninterrupted non-commercial boardwalk in New Jersey, a place to watch tides change, seagulls fly, and to listen to the rhythm of footsteps. 

In 2012, Hurricane Sandy nearly erased it. Only the original pilings remained—some still stamped WPA 1937 as if in remembering the men who built them.  By late 2013, after months of reconstruction, $5.49 million in funding (much of it from FEMA), and the dedication of local workers, the boardwalk rose again.  There were 242 new benches, bike racks, drinking fountains, and 2,000 feet of sand fencing, which elicited a collective sigh of joy. 

Today, residents and visitors stroll this open-air corridor, with sky above, a breeze at their backs, the ocean not far away, and history beneath their feet. 

Sea Girt 

“Sea Girt” means surrounded by the sea, and the name fits. Before beach badges and summer crowds, the land was farmland. In 1853, Commodore Robert F. Stockton purchased the entire area and built a sweeping summer estate from Stockton Lake to Wreck Pond—the seed for the town’s beachfront identity. 

While no cornerstone marks the exact building of Sea Girt’s boardwalk, the late 19th century brought beachfront hotels, bathhouses, and a growing summer population. More than likely, a walkway existed as a simple path through tall sand dunes, with homes on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. A lighthouse was built in 1896, anchoring the shoreline with its red brick presence. 

Old maps and deeds show a road facing the ocean, and public opinion at the time was divided. Some residents cherished Sea Girt’s natural, unspoiled beauty—its trees, shrubs, birds, and wildlife. Others believed a boardwalk would enhance the beach and boost property values. A 1927 letter to the Spring Lake Gazette captured the tension: “There are some people who believe that a boardwalk will be a good thing for the community.  On the other hand, there are those who see nothing but a menace in a boardwalk; a place for undesirables to congregate.” 

By 1929, taxpayers finally approved construction, and the boardwalk was built in 1932. 

Sea Girt’s boardwalk is shorter than Spring Lake’s, just a three-quarter-mile promenade. It’s a peaceful walkway bordered by sweeping ocean views, rolling sand dunes, and quiet homes. The Sea Girt Lighthouse remains the boardwalk’s crown jewel as the last Shore Lighthouse on the East Coast constructed with a keeper’s residence and the first in the nation to host a radio beacon. It is one of the most photographed spots in town. 

Two Towns, One Shoreline 

Together, the boardwalks of Spring Lake and Sea Girt tell a story of resilience and seaside beauty. One was born of the New Deal, the other shaped organically by sand dunes and early shore life. One stretches two miles, the other three-quarters of a mile. Both offer the promise of a place to relax and to feel the vitality of changing seasons. 

Whether it’s a brisk winter walk, a spring jog, a summer stroll, or a fall sunset, the boardwalks offer the timeless joy of being by the sea.

Judith Jones-Ambrosini is a Sea Girt resident, member of the Holly Club of Sea Girt, and author of the “Sisterhood of Diabetes.”