Long Beach is the westernmost of these barrier islands, fronting on Reynolds Channel to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south.The United States Congress established a lifesaving station in 1849, a dozen years after 62 people died when the barque Mexico carrying Irish immigrants to New York ran ashore on New Year's Day.[3][4] Development began on the island as a resort and was organized by Austin Corbin, a builder from Brooklyn, New York.The company also opened the 1,100-foot-long (340 m) Long Beach Hotel, at the time the largest in the world.By the next spring, tracks had been laid almost the full length of the Long Beach Island, but after repeated winter storm washouts they were removed in 1894.