Themepark - History - Trolley Parks, Atlantic City, and Coney Island

Trolley Parks, Atlantic City, and Coney Island

In the final decade of the 19th century, the electric trolley lines were developed in most of the larger American cities. Companies that established the trolley lines were directly responsible for establishing amusement parks -- trolley parks -- as destinations of these lines. Trolley parks like Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Park, or Reading's Carsonia Park were initially popular natural leisure spots before local streetcar companies purchased the sites, expanding them from picnic groves to include regular entertainments, mechanical amusements, dance halls, sports fields, boat rides, restaurants and other resort facilities. Various sources report the existence of between 1500 and 2000 amusement parks in the United States by 1919.

Some of these parks were developed in resort locations, such as bathing resorts at the seaside in New Jersey and New York. A premiere example in New Jersey was Atlantic City, a famous vacation resort. Enterprisers erected amusement parks on piers that extended from the boardwalk out over the ocean. The first of several was Ocean Pier in 1891, followed later by Steel Pier in 1898, both of which boasted rides and attractions typical of that time, such as Midway-style games and electric trolley rides. The boardwalk also had the first Roundabout installed in 1892 by William Somers, a wooden predecessor to the Ferris Wheel. Somers installed two others in Asbury Park and Coney Island.

The Eldorado Amusement Park opened in 1891 on the banks of the Hudson River, overlooking New York City. It consisted of 25 acres.

Other such parks were found along rivers and lakes that provided bathing and water sports such as Riverside Park in Massachusetts, which was founded along the Connecticut River in the 1840s, and Lake Compounce in Connecticut, first established as a public beach in 1846.

Another similar location was Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, where a horse-drawn streetcar line brought pleasure seekers to the beach beginning in 1829. In 1875, a million passengers rode the Coney Island Railroad, and in 1876 two million visited Coney Island. Hotels and amusements were built to accommodate both the upper-classes and the working-class. The first carousel was installed in the 1870s, the first roller coaster, the "Switchback Railway", in 1884. It was not until 1895 that the first permanent amusement park in North America opened: Sea Lion Park at Coney Island in Brooklyn. This park was one of the first to charge admission to get into the park in addition to sell tickets for rides within the park.

In 1897, Sea Lion Park was joined by Steeplechase Park, the first of three major amusement parks that would open in the Coney Island area. George Tilyou designed the park to provide thrills and entertainment. The combination of the nearby population center of New York City and the ease of access to the area made Coney Island the embodiment of the American amusement park. Coney Island also featured Luna Park and Dreamland. Coney Island was a huge success and by year 1910 attendance on days could reach a million people. Fueled by the efforts of Frederick Ingersoll, other "Luna Parks" were quickly erected worldwide and opened to rave reviews.

Fire was a constant threat in those days, as much of the construction within the amusement parks of the era was wooden. In 1911, Dreamland was the first Coney Island amusement park to completely burn down; in 1944, Luna Park also burned to the ground. Most of Ingersoll's Luna Parks were similarly destroyed, usually by arson, before his death in 1927.