Mantoloking, borough of New Jersey, United States
Mantoloking is a small borough in Ocean County, New Jersey, situated on the narrow Barnegat Peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and Barnegat Bay. It borders Bay Head to the north and Brick Township to the south, and most properties on the peninsula have water on one or both sides.
Mantoloking separated from Brick Township in 1911 to become its own borough. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused widespread destruction here, damaging or destroying the large majority of homes along the peninsula.
Mantoloking takes its name from the Lenape people who lived along this shore long before European settlement. Life here still revolves around the water, and visitors can see this in the way homes face the bay or the ocean rather than the street.
The streets here are narrow and easy to walk or cycle along, especially close to the waterfront. Parking can be hard to find in summer, so arriving early in the day makes a visit more comfortable.
After the 2012 storm, nearly every home in the borough had to be torn down or rebuilt from scratch, which means the Mantoloking visible today is almost entirely new construction. This makes it one of the few places on the Jersey Shore where the built environment is younger than the community itself.
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