' Skip To Content
Join the Conversation
Major funding provided by
Support Provided by: Learn More
Coney Island | Image Gallery

The Ups and Downs of America's First Amusement Park

Coney Island is a twentieth-century icon of American fun, and the birthplace of the large-scale amusement park. George Tilyou's grinning "funny face" logo for Steeplechase Park, the giant tower at Dreamland, and Luna Park's 1.3 million electric lights drew crowds of fun-seekers for decades. Visitors strolled the boardwalk, splashed in the Atlantic Ocean, rode the Wonder Wheel, and enjoyed festive, carefree days at New York's "Electric Eden."

  • Luna Park

  • Foolish House

  • Two people on a horse ride.

  • Coney Island's Ferris Wheel

  • Dreamland

  • A Coney Island elephant

  • Steeplechase Park

  • Coney Island at night

  • Bathers at Coney Island

  • Steeplechase Park

  • Two women enjoying Coney Island's rides

  • Steeplechase Park
Support Provided by: Learn More

Now Streaming

  • The Codebreaker poster image

    The Codebreaker

    Discover the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst who helped bring down gangsters and break up a Nazi spy ring in South America. Her work helped lay the foundation for modern codebreaking today.

  • Citizen Hearst poster image

    Citizen Hearst

    Explore the life of William Randolph Hearst, the pioneering media mogul and inspiration for Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. Wielding unprecedented power, Hearst forever transformed the media’s role in American life and politics.

  • The Big Burn poster image

    The Big Burn

    In the summer of 1910, hundreds of wildfires raged across the Northern Rockies. By the time it was all over, more than three million acres had burned and at least 78 firefighters were dead. It was the largest fire in American history.

Related Features