Woodland Beach

Locals say that on clear, well-lit nights around the full moon, you can still see figures walking out over the water along the vanished boardwalk, as if waiting for a ferry that stopped running long ago. Woodland Beach was one of Delaware's most popular coastal resorts from the 1880s into the early 1900s, reachable by rail and by daily steamboat from Philadelphia, with a hotel, a two-story pavilion, a boardwalk, and amusements drawing crowds from across the region. An 1878 hurricane leveled much of the town, and a 1914 storm finished the resort off for good; today only the old pier pilings remain in the water. The beach itself is now mostly surrounded by homes but remains open to the public.