Coney Island Amusement Park started as a beach resort for the wealthy but became accessible to the middle and working classes with the introduction of the subway. The park had three sections and famous rides such as the Thunderbolt and Cyclone. Today, it has about 50 attractions and a museum. The boardwalk was built in 1923, and the beach was expanded. Public lifeguards were introduced, improving safety. Despite economic hardships, the park has given the masses a place to enjoy themselves.
Coney Island Amusement Park was the first amusement park of any significant size, and became an entertainment empire for the masses, the working class and the wealthy, in the early 1900s. Known as the “nickel empire” for the cost of a subway ride to Brooklyn’s seaside park, eventually came to offer family-style entertainment, food, and lodging. For decades the beach site had been the domain of the leisure class, with large hotels and a dirt road for access. The subway changed the landscape and the type of amusement park goers who could afford to ride in the 1920s.
Transportation advances have had a major impact on the growth and changing face of Coney Island Amusement Park. What began as a beach resort for the wealthy, accessible by carriage in the 1800s, eventually welcomed the middle class and then those who skimped to afford a nickel subway ride. About 100,000 people traveled to the Coney Island amusement park on summer days in the early 20th century, when Sunday was a day of recreation for the working class, and that number increased to 20 a day over the next two decades. The Metro doubled visitor numbers after 500,000 to one million.
At one time there were three parks on Coney Island: Luna Park, Steeplechase Park and Dreamland. His famous roller coasters included the Thunderbolt and the Cyclone. The park also had more than a dozen carousels and, starting in the mid-1950s, the Ferris wheel called the Wonder Wheel and the Spook-a-Rama, a spooky ride in an open car that rolled on tracks beyond the dark and scary scenes. Today the amusement park has about 50 attractions, including rides. There is also a Coney Island museum.
Subway riders in the 1920s could not afford all the games and rides offered by the Coney Island amusement park, such as the 25-cent arcade where visitors could shoot at targets, or the many rides, some of which cost 15 cents . In 1923 many private beaches were made public and people came in droves to enjoy the sand and ocean on hot summer days, packing food and drink for want of a dime to buy a hot dog and donning their bathing suits under the their civilian clothes to avoid having to pay 50 cents for a dressing room. Despite economic hardships, the nickel empire’s Coney Island Amusement Park has given the masses a place to enjoy themselves.
The boardwalk was erected in 1923 and the beach was enlarged with the addition of 2.5 million square feet (232,257.6 square meters) of sand. Paid lifeguards from New York City were not employed until the boardwalk was built. Before that, each bathhouse employed its own lifeguards. The advent of public lifeguards improved safety, with drownings decreasing from more than four dozen a year to about six.
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