Cape May

Cape May,city (1990 pop. 4,668), Cape May co., S N.J., on Cape May peninsula and the Atlantic Ocean; settled in the 1600s, inc. 1857. One of the nation's oldest beach resorts and a national historic landmark, it became known in the mid-19th cent. as thePresident's Playground; Lincoln, Grant, Arthur, Buchanan, Hayes, and Benjamin Harrison vacationed here. Its Victorian mansions and hotels are well known. The city is connected by ferry to Lewes, Del.

Cape May,the southern extremity of New Jersey, has a lighthouse on Cape May Point at the entrance to Delaware Bay. The cape is bisected by a canal, c.3 mi (4.8 km) above the point, built 1942–43 as a war emergency measure to provide an alternative to the hazardous route around the cape; the canal is part of theIntracoastal Waterway. In the past few decades erosion of the cape and saltwater entering groundwater have become major problems.

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