150 Years of Coney Island Thrills in Photos | Atlas Obscura

150 Years of ConeConey Island has long been an accessible, one-day vacation for New Yorkers wanting to escape the heat. The first amusement ride was built in 1876 and from that time until World War II, Coney Island was the largest amusement area in the United States. It evokes long days at the beach, gaudy fun fairs and nostalgia.y Island Thrills in Photos | Atlas Obscura

Breaking Waves on Coney Island

Watching the waves break upon the shore at Coney Island

Future of coney island boardwalk is certain...not wood.

BMT Centennial with vintage subway cars in Brighton Beach

BMT Subway Centennial Photos

The new and the pretty old enter the Brighton Beach station

On June 22, 1915, on a seasonally cool but fair Tuesday, The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, or BRT, (which would become the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation, or BMT), opened its first subway with much pomp and circumstance with Manhattan to Coney Island service. Its first train crossed the East River to Downtown Brooklyn via the Manhattan Bridge and then headed out to Coney Island using the new Fourth Avenue Subway and Sea Beach Lines. The inaugural ride from Chambers Street to Coney Island took 48 minutes, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. It was New York City’s second subway company and, in its time, one of the most innovative transit networks in the world.

The BMT’s centennial was relived today at the New York Transit Museum where MTA New York City Transit President Carmen Bianco took part in the festivities. In addition, nostalgia trains will be put into service as part of the centennial celebration this weekend on June 27 and 28, when customers can ride the vintage subway cars between noon and 4 p.m. with just the swipe of a MetroCard.

Running on the Coney Island Boardwalk

Used filter and muted outdoor colors to focus on the runner.

Sand sculpting at Coney Island

My favorite...very powerful.

Another delay for Thunderbolt

Now the projected opening of the Thunderbolt is this Friday, June 6.  

Life under the Thunderbolt

Life under the Thunderbolt - NYPOST.com

(Excerpt)
Joan Finkelstein expected the nervous shakes. She had agreed to marry Edwin Howard just after meeting him in March 1952. By July of that year, she was headed to his aunt’s house in Coney Island to meet his family for the first time.

When she got there, she noticed it wasn’t she that had the shakes. It was the walls. She looked frantically around the house and, while the china hanging on the walls was rumbling, nothing was crashing to the ground and no one else was batting an eye. Either this is an earthquake, she thought, or I’m losing my mind.

“Oh, that’s just the roller coaster,” Howard reassured her, as her daughter Janine Gorell recalls. “It’s going to go over a lot because it’s July.

The shaken bride-to-be eventually relaxed, accepting that she was about to become a part of this strange family that lived under Coney Island’s Thunderbolt roller coaster.

Rare view inside Child's Restaurant on Boardwalk built in 1924

Here is a rare view of the inside of Child's Restaurant on the Coney Island Boardwalk.  A group of workers opened up the entrances but wouldn't give any information on the purpose of their visit.  Child's Restaurant is a NYC Landmark.
Read Gothamist article in August 2012 on the exciting possibilities.

Rough Ride for Arcades at Coney Island

Rough Ride for Arcades at Coney Island Park - WSJ.com

(Excerpt)
As Coney Island rebuilds after Sandy, the operators of its amusement parks face a specific challenge: to refurbish beloved but aniquated games. Park owners have to reach out to special tinkerers to repair fan favorites like Grandma"s Predictions.

Grandma now sits in a kind of intensive-care ward for century-old knickknacks in the Westchester County workshop of Bob Yorburg, 57, who specializes in carnival repair, and who recently revamped the carousel organ for the Big Apple Circus at Lincoln Center

Free WiFi for the Boardwalk

Parks Dept Eyeing Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, Marine Park For Free WiFi | Sheepshead Bay News Blog

Coney Island Beach and Boardwalk.  How cool is that? Wouldn't bring my laptop to the beach. But park yourself on one of the many benches on the Boardwalk, download the latest best seller and you never have to go home before dark.

Mermaid Parade 2012

click to go to album===>Mermaid Parade 2012

Crayola

The Mermaid Parade is not the only colorful action on the Boardwalk

Space Invader attacks unfinished Coney Island carousel with ray gun

Shuttle Barge

The future pays no mind to the past.

taking down the strongest

Pier Review