Old Map of Cape May, New Jersey by USGS, 1925 – Wildwood, Ocean City & Cape May Point

Published in 1925 by the United States Geological Survey, “Cape May” presents the southern tip of New Jersey with the clarity and restraint characteristic of early twentieth-century American topographic mapping. At a scale of 1:62,500, it records the meeting of land, marsh, inlet, and ocean at one of the Atlantic seaboard’s most storied resort landscapes. The map’s yellowish ground tint and finely differentiated blue hydrology give immediate prominence to the tidal waters, beaches, and coastal margins that shaped life here. Cape May, Cape May Point, Wildwood, Ocean City, and Rio Grande appear within a landscape still poised between rural coastal settlement and the larger waves of development that would transform the region later in the century.

The United States Geological Survey, founded in 1879, brought scientific discipline and national ambition to the mapping of American terrain. Its maps were not merely navigational aids, but instruments of public knowledge, designed to support land management, engineering, resource study, and environmental understanding. In this Cape May sheet, the USGS’s methodical approach is evident in the careful rendering of contours, waterways, roads, railways, and settlement patterns. The map captures a coast where natural systems and human infrastructure are inseparable: railroad lines guiding visitors toward beach towns, roads threading through low-lying terrain, and built communities clustered along desirable shorelines. It is a portrait of place through measurement, but also through the quiet elegance of precise observation.

Cape May itself occupies a special place in American coastal history. By the nineteenth century it had become one of the country’s premier seaside resorts, famed for its ocean air, fashionable hotels, and later its remarkable concentration of Victorian architecture. On this 1925 map, the town appears within the broader geography that made it flourish: beaches fronting the Atlantic, sheltered waters nearby, and transport links connecting the resort to inland New Jersey and beyond. Cape May Point, just to the west, anchors the extremity of the peninsula, where land narrows into a distinctive coastal edge. The map evokes a moment when the area’s identity as a leisure destination was well established, yet still closely tied to its maritime and ecological setting.

Beyond the resort towns, the map’s great fascination lies in its treatment of water and lowland. Marshlands, bays, creeks, beaches, and inlets form an intricate coastal fabric, rendered in blue tones that distinguish hydrological features from the warm land tint. This is a landscape governed by tides, sediment, and exposure to the Atlantic, where settlement had to adapt to the shape and instability of the shore. Wildwood and Ocean City appear as part of a chain of beach communities, while inland places such as Rio Grande reveal the peninsula’s quieter agricultural and transportation corridors. The result is a beautifully legible record of the Cape May region before later urban expansion, highway construction, and intensified shore development.

As a historical document, this map offers a compelling view of Cape May County in the 1920s, a period when tourism, rail access, coastal defense, and local commerce all influenced the region’s geography. The roads and railways shown indicate the infrastructure that carried summer visitors to Atlantic beaches and connected small communities across the peninsula. Potential coastal military sites and strategic shoreline positions hint at the area’s significance beyond recreation, reflecting the longstanding importance of the Delaware Bay entrance and nearby Atlantic approaches. Today, the map invites comparison with a transformed coastline, making visible earlier patterns of settlement, mobility, and land use. It is at once a scientific survey and a refined historical portrait of New Jersey’s southern shore.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Cape May
• Cape May Point
• Ocean City
• Wildwood
• Rio Grande
• State Park
• Roads and railways connecting these areas
• Beaches along the Atlantic Ocean
• Nearby marshlands and bodies of water
• Potential military sites near the coast
• Historical landmarks related to the beach and tourism industry

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the United States Geological Survey in 1925
• Historical topographical map showing Cape May, New Jersey and the surrounding coastline
• The USGS was established in 1879 and became central to mapping, scientific research, natural resource use, and environmental management in the United States
• Cape May is known for its Victorian architecture and historic role as a seaside resort destination
• Uses a yellowish tint with hydrological features shown in blue hues, typical of early 20th-century topographical maps
• Drawn at a scale of 1:62,500, capturing elevation, water bodies, and urban layouts
• Reflects the geography and infrastructure of Cape May before significant later urban development and transportation changes

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