Close your eyes for a moment and pretend it’s 1927:
“After a hard week working in Manhattan, you take the subway out to Brooklyn. The train pulls into Stillwell Avenue and when the doors open you can already smell the ocean. You are here with thousands and thousands of other people. Women walking down the boardwalk carrying their silk parasol, kids enjoying the surf and the sand, freak shows, the Cyclone roller coaster and Dinos Wonder Wheel. You can hear them screaming, you can hear them laughing. People are standing in an endless line at Surf Avenue to get one of Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, that was invented here in Coney Island in 1916.”
Some people say it was the air condition at movie theaters and the invention of the TV. Others say it was the ability to drive to less crowded places in your own car. The decline of Coney Island started. No matter what it was, Coney Island has lost his glories.
Back in 2009 only a few attractions are still roadworthy, much has decayed and destroyed. The paint is off and the shine is gone. This melancholic charm with its dark charisma let you feel what has been lost here.
