Coney Island

Coney Island

Coney Island is the site of a famous decades-old amusement park on the beach in Brooklyn, although somewhat tattered at the edges by 1996.

History

After Thailog broke Demona and Fang out of the Labyrinth in 1996, they lead Goliath and Talon to the funhouse at Coney Island. Rightly suspecting a trap, Goliath left and returned with the Manhattan Clan to overwhelm their enemies with numbers. When they entered the building they were attacked by not only Thailog, Demona and Fang, but also the clones of the Trio and Hudson and were quickly captured. Due to Thailog's attempt to kill Angela followed by his revelation of Delilah, Demona switched sides in the conflict, freeing the gargoyles and Talon and leading to a massive battle between the two groups throughout the amusement park. As Demona and Thailog battled atop a wooden roller coaster, a stray blast from the fighting mutates set the structure ablaze and both the gargoyles were enveloped by the flames and presumed dead. The clones were defeated and went to live with Talon in the Labyrinth and Fang was re-imprisoned there. ("The Reckoning")

Numerous rides and buildings suffered various amounts of damage during the incident, but the park repaired the damage shortly thereafter. [1]

Real World Background

Originally home to the Lenape, the island was called Narrioch, meaning "land without shadows" or "always in light". [2] The first Europeans spotted the island in 1527, led by Giovanni da Verrazzano. The Dutch eventually settled in the area by the 17th Century.

During the 18th Century, Coney Island had developed as a recreational vacation spot for New Yorkers, with hotels springing up along the coast. Attractions and rides followed soon after, with the first Coney Island carousel built by Charles I. D. Loof in 1876 and the Switchback Railway, Coney Island's first rollercoaster in 1884. George C. Tilyou opened his first carousel in 1897, which eventually grew into Steeplechase Park. Luna Park and Dreamland opened in 1903 and 1904, respectively. Luna Park's signature attraction was A Trip to the Moon, based on Jules Verne's 1865 novel, while Dreamland acquired Creation from the St. Louis World's Fair, an attraction retelling of the first six days as described in the Book of Genesis.

Coney Island is also home to the Wonder Wheel, first opened in 1920, and the Cyclone, which opened in 1927. The two became city landmarks in 1989 and 1988, respectively.

Luna Park eventually closed in 1944, while Steeplechase Park remained opened until 1964. Steeplechase Park was hastily demolished in 1966 to prevent the possibility that its buildings and structures would be given protected city landmark status. [3][4][5] Astroland, meanwhile, opened its gates in 1962, south of where Luna Park once stood. [6]

While the fire in "The Reckoning" is fiction, Coney Island has seen its share of park fires. It took two years for Steeplechase Park to be fully rebuilt after catching fire in 1907 (charging visitors in the interim ten cents to view the rubble, reduced from the original twenty-five cents), and Dreamland was never rebuilt after fires (exacerbated by high winds) destroyed it. [7][8]

Attendees of the Seventh Annual Gathering of the Gargoyles enjoyed an outing to Astroland in 2003, five years before it was shut down. [9][10] A new park, also named Luna Park, opened there in 2010.

See Also

• Coney Island at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia