Coney Island

Coney Island is a peninsula and former island of southernmost Brooklyn, New York City, USA, with a famous beach lying on the Atlantic Ocean.

The Coney Island amusements

Between about 1880 and World War II, Coney Island was the largest amusement area in the United States, attracting several million visitors per year. At its height it contained three competing major amusement parks, Luna Park, Dreamland, and Steeplechase Park, as well as many independent amusements. It was finally eclipsed by Disneyland in California.

Related Topics:
1880 - World War II - Luna Park - Dreamland - Steeplechase Park - Disneyland

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Rides

The amusement area contains various rides, games such as skeeball, and a sideshow, games of shooting and throwing and tossing skills. Record setting Coney Island rides (as the first of their kind or largest) are:

Related Topics:
Skeeball - Sideshow

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• Wonder Wheel (1920), a huge ferris wheel with both stationary cars and moving cars that run on tracks, now part of Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park;
• The Cyclone roller coaster (1927), which some claim is still the world's best wooden roller coaster;
• Parachute Jump, originally the Life Savers Parachute Jump at the 1939 New York World's Fair, which was the first ride of its kind. Patrons were hoisted some 190 feet in the air before being allowed to drop using guy-wired parachutes. This landmark ride, closed for years, was completely dismantled, cleaned, painted and restored, but there are varying opinions on whether it should reopen as a ride, or stand as a symbolic structure;
• Bumper cars, which are small vehicles with rubber bumpers all the way around, which ride on a flat metal surface, and are powered by electricity conducted by a pole standing upright from the back of the car and touching an electrified ceiling. The electrical ground is provided by the metal flooring. The object is to ride in a loop and bump other cars, especially if you are a young male and there are rival young males in another car, or better, pretty young girls. The idea for the Demolition Derby is said to have originated from bumper cars.

Other parks and venues

It is also the location of the New York Aquarium since June 6th, 1957, on the former site of the Dreamland amusement park. In 2001, KeySpan Park opened on the former site of Steeplechase Park to host the Brooklyn Cyclones minor-league baseball team.

Related Topics:
New York Aquarium - Dreamland - KeySpan Park - Steeplechase Park - Brooklyn Cyclones

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Since the early 80's Coney Island has been the home of Coney Island, USA - a not for profit arts organization "dedicated to preserving the dignity of American Popular Culture." Coney Island, USA produces the last 10-in-1 Sideshow in America at their theater on Coney Island. The organization also produces the annual Mermaid Parade, the Coney Island Film Festival, and houses the Coney Island Museum. Thanks largely to the efforts of the group, Coney Island has seen a rebirth in the early 2000's, with many new New Yorkers rediscovering the joy of this beautiful waterfront treasure that's just a subway ride from Manhattan.

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An annual (and revealing) amateur mermaid parade takes place on Surf Avenue, featuring floats, acts, and various entertainments, some rivaling the more famous Halloween parade in Greenwich Village.

Related Topics:
Amateur - Mermaid - Halloween - Greenwich Village

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Swimming and sunbathing

Coney Island's excellent and sun-drenched beach remains a major attraction. The main beach area, extended from Coney Island Avenue in Brighton Beach westward to West 37th Street at the border of Sea Gate, is divided into "bays," areas of beach delineated by rock jetties, which moderate erosion and the force of ocean waves. The length of this beach is occupied by the Riegelman boardwalk, reputed to be the world's longest, and the subject of the famous song "Under the Boardwalk," first popularized in 1964.

Related Topics:
Rock - Jetties - Erosion - Waves - Boardwalk - 1964

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The Polar Bear Swim Club first met at Coney Island and make an annual pilgrimage in the dead of winter to swim in the icy ocean waters, accompanied by bundled up television reporters.

Related Topics:
Polar Bear Swim Club - Winter - Television - Reporters

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