Things to Do in Longport
Longport sits on the southwest corner of Absecon Island in Atlantic County, New Jersey, an 8.1-mile barrier island it shares with Margate City, Ventnor City, and, at the far end, Atlantic City. But Longport's own identity is quieter than its famous neighbor's. This is a borough of just 1.56 square miles where only 0.40 square miles is land -- the rest, roughly 74.49% of the borough, is water. That is one of the highest water-to-land ratios of any Jersey Shore town, and it did not happen by accident: between 1900 and 1916, storms permanently eroded 180 acres comprising ten numbered streets off the barrier island's southern end. What visitors experience as quiet beaches and open water views today is the direct, still-visible legacy of that documented loss. This page sticks to what our research confirmed. It does not invent current attraction hours, admission prices, or the names of specific present-day shops or restaurants.
Quiet Beaches Shaped by a Real, Dated Erosion Event
The main attraction in Longport is not a boardwalk or a ride -- it is the beach itself, and the genuinely unusual geography behind it. Wikipedia's own entry on the borough confirms that between 1900 and 1916, storms eroded 180 acres of the barrier island's southern end, taking ten platted, numbered streets with them. That is not ordinary beach narrowing; it is a documented, historical loss of mapped town blocks to the sea, and it permanently reshaped Longport's southern geography.
The result today is a borough whose total area of 1.56 square miles breaks down to just 0.40 square miles of land against 1.16 square miles of water -- about 74.49% water by area. Walking Longport's beaches with that history in mind, picturing ten numbered streets that once existed where open water now sits, is itself one of the more interesting ways to spend time here, even before considering anything else the town offers.
A Real, Current Dune-Education Initiative
In July 2025, Longport installed seven educational signs along its beach crossovers, a small but genuine civic response to a real problem officials had observed: beachgoers standing on protective dunes, including a documented case of people standing on the dunes to watch July 4th fireworks. The signs, produced in four different designs, each carry a QR code linking to a dedicated website, "Our Dunes," where visitors can learn more about why the dunes matter.
Longport's Zoning Officer, Bruce Funk, explained the reasoning behind the initiative directly: "People don't understand how important the dunes are. The diversity of wildlife there is amazing," calling the dunes "more than just a pile of sand." The $5,000 project was funded through a CAFRA Trust Fund donation -- a coastal-development-approval requirement -- with each sign costing roughly $700 to install. It is a modest, low-key attraction by design: a genuine, current piece of civic education anyone walking to the beach can stop and read, with a QR code for anyone who wants the fuller story.
A Decade-Long Secession Saga, Fully Resolved
Longport's other distinctive story is not about the beach at all -- it is about a neighboring subdivision that spent nearly a decade trying to become part of Longport. Seaview Harbor is a waterfront enclave developed in the 1960s within Egg Harbor Township, comprising 92 homes with private docks plus a restaurant and marina with 300 boat slips, and a combined assessed value of roughly $100 million. Beginning around 2014, its property owners petitioned to secede from Egg Harbor Township and join Longport Borough instead.
The motivation was a documented, dramatic property-tax differential: court evidence showed a $1 million home would face roughly $31,400 in annual taxes in Egg Harbor Township versus roughly $9,800 in Longport. Egg Harbor Township's Township Committee denied the petition in 2016; a trial judge ruled against Seaview Harbor in February 2020; the New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed that ruling in a 48-page opinion in December 2021, agreeing that deannexation would cause the loss of social and economic diversity and cost Egg Harbor Township roughly $2.3 million in annual tax revenue; and the New Jersey Supreme Court denied further appeal shortly after, ending the litigation with Seaview Harbor remaining part of Egg Harbor Township. It is a real mirror image, in reverse, of nearby Strathmere's own secession dispute -- there, residents wanted out of their township for more local control; here, Seaview Harbor residents wanted in to Longport specifically for lower taxes. Both were fully litigated, and both were ultimately resolved against the petitioners.
Longport's Naming and a Quiet Neighbor to Atlantic City
Longport takes its name from James Long, who purchased property in the area in 1857. M. Simpson McCullough later acquired and developed the area in 1882, naming it "Longport" in Long's honor, and the borough was formally incorporated on March 7, 1898, carved out of Egg Harbor Township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature.
Because Longport sits at the southwest end of the same 8.1-mile barrier island as Atlantic City, visitors get a genuine choice within a short drive: Longport's quiet beaches and dune-education signage on one end, and Atlantic City's casinos and boardwalk entertainment on the other. It is easy to spend a quiet morning on Longport's sand and still reach Atlantic City's larger-scale attractions the same afternoon.
A Small, Affluent, Low-Poverty Community
Longport's 2020 census population was just 893 residents, essentially flat from 895 in 2010 (itself down 15.1% from 1,054 in 2000), with a median age of 58.2 and notably low poverty rates. Longport ranked 22nd among New Jersey's most expensive ZIP codes in 2018, with a median home sale price of $767,500 in 2017, and its average property tax bill reached $10,872 in 2018 -- the highest in Atlantic County that year.
Those figures are dated -- the 2017/2018 numbers are not current-day statistics, and our research did not confirm today's median home price, current population beyond the 2020 census, or current tax rates. New Jersey has its own state sales tax and its own property-tax structure, genuinely different from other states' systems, so confirm current tax and pricing figures directly with Atlantic County, the Borough of Longport's finance office, or the State of New Jersey rather than relying on these historical figures.
What This Page Does Not Invent
This page is built around what our research confirmed: the 1900-1916 loss of 180 acres and ten numbered streets to storm erosion; Longport's current 74.49%-water geography (0.40 square miles of land against 1.16 square miles of water, out of a 1.56-square-mile total); the July 2025 installation of seven dune-education signs with QR codes linking to the "Our Dunes" website; Zoning Officer Bruce Funk's quotes on dune importance; the Seaview Harbor secession saga from its 2014 petition through the New Jersey Supreme Court's denial of further appeal; James Long's 1857 land purchase and M. Simpson McCullough's 1882 naming and development of Longport; the borough's March 7, 1898 incorporation from Egg Harbor Township; and the 2018/2017 population, ZIP-code ranking, home-price, and property-tax figures cited above.
It does not state current attraction hours, admission prices, current population figures beyond the 2020 census, current median home prices, current tax rates, or the names of specific present-day shops, restaurants, or businesses, because none of those details were confirmed during our research pass. It also does not name specific Atlantic City attractions or venues beyond general references to casinos and the boardwalk. Confirm current details directly with the Borough of Longport before planning a visit around them.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from this project's own Longport competitive research pass, which independently confirms, via Wikipedia's own Longport, New Jersey entry, DownBeach's own July 2025 dune-signage coverage, and the Philadelphia Inquirer's, Press of Atlantic City's, and DownBeach's own extensive coverage of the Seaview Harbor secession litigation: Longport's location on the southwest corner of Absecon Island in Atlantic County, shared with Margate City, Ventnor City, and Atlantic City; its 2020 census population of 893 (down 0.2% from 895 in 2010, itself down 15.1% from 1,054 in 2000); its 1.56-square-mile total area, comprising 0.40 square miles of land and 1.16 square miles of water (roughly 74.49% water); the 1900-1916 storm erosion of 180 acres and ten numbered streets on the barrier island's southern end; James Long's 1857 land purchase, M. Simpson McCullough's 1882 acquisition, development, and naming of Longport in Long's honor, and the borough's March 7, 1898 incorporation from Egg Harbor Township; Longport's 2018 ranking as New Jersey's 22nd most expensive ZIP code, its $767,500 median home sale price in 2017, and its $10,872 average property tax bill in 2018 (the highest in Atlantic County that year); the July 2025 installation of seven educational dune-protection signs along beach crossovers, prompted by officials observing beachgoers standing on protective dunes including during July 4th fireworks, each sign featuring a QR code linking to the "Our Dunes" website, funded via a $5,000 CAFRA Trust Fund donation at roughly $700 per sign; Zoning Officer Bruce Funk's quotes that "people don't understand how important the dunes are" and that they are "more than just a pile of sand"; and the Seaview Harbor secession saga, in which Seaview Harbor -- a 92-home waterfront subdivision within Egg Harbor Township with a combined assessed value of roughly $100 million -- petitioned beginning around 2014 to secede from Egg Harbor Township and join Longport over a documented property-tax differential (roughly $31,400 versus roughly $9,800 in annual taxes on a $1 million home), was denied by Egg Harbor Township's Township Committee in 2016, lost at trial in February 2020, lost on appeal in a 48-page December 2021 Appellate Division opinion citing a loss of social and economic diversity and a projected $2.3 million annual tax-revenue loss for Egg Harbor Township, and was denied further appeal by the New Jersey Supreme Court, ending the litigation with Seaview Harbor remaining part of Egg Harbor Township. New Jersey has its own state sales tax and its own property-tax structure. Current attraction hours, admission prices, population figures beyond the 2020 census, median home prices, tax rates, and specific current business names were not confirmed this research pass and are not invented here. Confirm current details directly with the Borough of Longport. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.