Atlantic City Steel Pier Diving Bell: You Either Loved, or Hated It

The Atlantic City Steel Pier Diving Bell was truly iconic.

It was also divisive in that there has been a love - hate relationship with it from the beginning.

For the record, I’m in the “I loved it” crowd. I didn’t care that no matter how many times you looked out of the porthole windows … the only thing you ever saw was dark, cloudy water and seaweed.

So what. It was the overall experience. You entered the submersible submarine, or diving bell … and took a slow trip down to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

The reward for taking this trip was the return voyage.

The ride back up was amazing. The return was like blasting off in a rocket. It was the exact opposite of the slow trip down to the bottom.

I also always enjoyed hearing the ride operator announce that …

”You’ve taken a trip to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and you didn’t even get wet.”

It was fantastic every time.

The Facebook Page “I Grew Up Or Lived In Atlantic City, NJ through a post by Joseph Laden recently tackled the love - hate aspect of the Steel Pier Diving Bell, writing:

Submarine Diving Bell on Steel Pier— PS- Compared to most of the other attractions on the pier it was a lot of fun. Being someplace that you wouldn't normally get to like 10-12 feet underwater gave a lot of us enough bang for the buck. But as you can read below, many folks are still whining about it, wrote Laden.

Here are a just few of the hundreds of likes and comments that Laden’s post generated:

Judith Ewell Rogers - Probably went down in it 10 times.... just saw cloudy water!

Karen Louise Couchoud - What a rip off the diving bell was. Took you a few feet under to see seaweed floating by. Not on fish ever. If there were something to see the bell scared it off.

Joseph Laden responded - Just going down off the pier into the ocean was worth it for everyone I knew. The pop up was very cool.

I strongly agree with Laden.

Frank Power - I was in it a couple times. Couldn't see a thing!

Marc Wiser -  I was lucky enough to enjoy the ride.

Tina Brummett Bevilacqua - My favorite ride before and after I worked there.

Merle Seigel - Scared me to death!

Cathy Burgos - Wow...in the 70s when I was on the pier all the time either with dancing Grady and Hurst...performing Tony Grant Children's Theater...or just running with friends on the amusments...the Diving Bell always drew a huge crowd even if all you could see was green murky water!!

Cathy’s comment is the perfect way to end this story … except to say that you can still see the original Steel Pier Diving Bell at Historic Gardners Basin in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

This Don Hurley photo shows it in its final resting place.

SOURCE: Joseph Laden, I Grew Up Or Lived In Atlantic City, NJ Facebook Page.