Vote for iconic NJ landmark as the best U.S. roadside attraction

🔵 USA Today Poll has a list of the Top 20 Best U.S. Roadside Attractions

🔵 A NJ iconic structure made the list

🔵 Be sure to vote

All across America there are countless cultural and even quirky landmarks that travelers love to encounter. Some are simply stops along the way, but others have a story to tell.

USA Today put together an expert panel to nominate their top 20 picks for the best roadside attractions in America.

One New Jersey landmark made the list: Lucy the Elephant. The iconic structure in Margate is competing against 19 other landmarks, and you can vote for her.

Vote once per day until Monday, May 6, with the top 10 winners being announced on May 15.

Lucy the Elephant

Listed on the National Park Registry of Historical Landmarks, the 142-year-old Lucy the Elephant stands six stories high and is the oldest roadside attraction in the United States.
Tourists will find the pachyderm at 1 Lucy Plaza, 9200 Atlantic Avenue in Margate, and she remains open for guided tours.

Lucy was built in 1881, which at the time was still called South Atlantic City. It did not become Margate until 1909. Originally, Lucy was built as a marketing gimmick to help sell real estate, according to Richard Helfant, Executive Director and CEO of Lucy the Elephant.

Atlantic City had just become a new seaside resort in 1854 and the railroad was built from Philadelphia to Camden to Atlantic City.

“A Philadelphia developer named James Lafferty had just purchased much of the land in Margate and he thought that if he could build this crazy thing which he fashioned after P.T. Barnum’s “Jumbo,” a famous circus elephant back then, people would be so curious over this oddity, that they would be compelled to come down here and see it. Then, he could sell his real estate holdings,” Helfant said.

Throughout her life, Lucy has served as a tavern for a year and a single-family residence for another year. But for most of her life, she has been a tourist attraction.
The elephant recently underwent a 15-month-long, $2.4 million restoration project, where her exterior metal skin was replaced.

Other landmarks competing against Lucy the Elephant in this USA Today Poll include:

The Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum – Gibsland, Louisiana
Cabazon Dinosaurs – Cabazon, California
Cadillac Ranch – Amarillo, Texas
Carhenge – Alliance, Nebraska
Casey Jones Village – Jackson, Tennessee
Dalmatian Fire Hydrant – Beaumont, Texas
The Easel Project – Goodland, Kansas
Eclectic Menagerie Park – Houston, Texas
Miccosukee Indian Village – Miami, Florida
Paul A. Johnson Pencil Sharpener Museum – Logan, Ohio
Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox – Bemidji, Minnesota
Prada Marfa – Valentine, Texas
Seven Magic Mountains – Henderson, Nevada
Shealy’s Official Skunk Ape Headquarters – Ochopee, Florida
Wall Drug Store Inc.- Wall, South Dakota
Wheat Jesus – Colby, Kansas
World’s Largest Ball of Twine – Cawker City, Kansas
World’s Largest Frying Pan – Rose Hill, North Carolina

Vote here for your favorite roadside attraction.

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