Asbury Park, New Jersey early years of Springsteen's career in Asbury Park. Daniel Wolff's "4 July Asbury Park" examines the social, political and cultural history of the city with a special emphasis on the part that music played in the city's development, culminating in Springsteen. "Beyond the Palace" by Gary Wien is a comprehensive look at the local music scene that Springsteen emerged from, and includes many photographs of musicians and clubs. Against the backdrop of the fading resort, Alex Austin's novel "The Red Album of Asbury Park" tracks a young rock musician pursuing his dream in the late 60s/early 70s, with Springsteen as
Asbury Park station the construction of an extension of the New York and Long Branch Railroad (NY&LB), a subsidiary of the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Pennsylvania Railroad. The NY&LB began as a railroad between Elizabethport (in Elizabeth, Union County) to Long Branch, finished in 1875. The railroad was extended through the city of Asbury Park on July 7 to Sea Girt. However, the station at Asbury Park was built on land donated by the Ocean Grove Campmeeting Association, a part of the Methodist Church. The new station was built for the purposes of serving both Asbury Park and Ocean Grove.