America's Theme Park: Coney Island

The greatest thing about the Brooklyn, New York, New York area back around the 1880s to about the 1920s was a pretty spectacular, yet seemingly affordable amusement park by the name of Coney Island. On its own little peninsula, Coney Island thrived off of the middle class. People came in droves just to visit this four mile long “island of fun”. The actual island got its name from the Dutch name Conyne Eylandt which literally translated to “Rabbit Island” in English; Coney being archaic for rabbit, it was a pretty diverse island full of rabbits before its eventual development.

Coney Island, being off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, was the spot for a thriller time. It offered hotels (the coolest one being shaped as an oversized elephant), three main amusement parks (Luna Park, Steeplechase Park, and the Sea- Lion Park), gambling casinos and horse racing. In the 1860s and 1870s, excursion railroads and the Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad streetcar lines reached Coney Island making it easier for transportation to the island. When steam railroads were electrified and connected to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (B.R.T.C), Coney Island became more of a day- to- day theme amusement park. In 1920, a subway line was also completed running from Manhattan to Coney Island.

May 16, 1903, the Luna Park phase was opened by Fredrick Thompson and Skip Dundy and it employed nearly some 1,700 employees by the year 1907. It had its own telegraph office, radio office, and long-distance telephone service which I’m sure was a large deal back then because the invention of the telephone was still rather fresh amongst the world. A few of the rides that were included in this park were the War of the Worlds, The Kansas Cycle, and the Trip to the Moon ride. The park itself was designed to keep every single person on their feet and moving; if someone were to sit down, musicians were ordered to go and play to persuade them back onto their feet and moving. This was probably the least dangerous of al of the parks.

Then there was Steeplechase Park, opened by George C. Tilyou. This park was named after its famous horse races. Now Steeplechase was probably the weirdest of the three parks in the fact that it consisted of the Human Zoo. Visitors would walk up a spiral staircase until they found themselves in a cage where they were offered peanuts and were spoken to as animals. Then there was the more normal Steeplechase ride which included six double-saddled mechanical horses that took passengers down a 1,100 feet long track and over a series of hurdles all around the park. Gravity even gave the heavier riders an advantage over the less husky and riders were dressed as jockeys. At the exit of the ride was the Blowhole Theater where women walked over a large opening that blasted a large amount of wind up their skirts while a crowd would look on with approval. If the women’s escorts protested against it, they were often shocked by a clown that waited nearby. In 1907, though, Steeplechase Park burned to the ground.

            The major park was the Sea- Lion Park, which was the first enclosed amusement park at Coney Island and was opened by Captain Paul Boyton. This park was probably the least exciting because it only consisted of trained sea lions doing tricks and flipping out of the water and an exotic water park. This park, I’m sure, was still very fun and enjoyable though. There was a famous hotdog stand in Coney Island named “Nathan’s Hot Dogs”. It opened in 1916 and is still to this day a very famous, well known hotdog.

Steeplechase Park Sign

Luna Park entrance

fun house entrance

            To this day, I’m positive that Coney Island is still one of the largest theme parks that had ever been built. People would come from near and far to visit its marvelous yet strange attractions that seemed to entertain majority of the middle class back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Although this park doesn’t exist anymore, it is inspirational to merely every amusement park in the United States of America and will always be one of the greatest parks ever.


Links to Sources:
-http://topics.wisegeek.com/topics.htm?coney-island-rides
-http://www.coneyislandhistory.org/index.php?g=press
-http://www.bigapplehomesrealty.com/Coney%20Island.htm
-http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/coney/
-U.S. History book