A Sheriff from the West visits Coney Island

 

Hi, Kit Morgan here! In doing some research for my current book, Winnie, The Snows of Clear Creek Book 4, I had to figure out how my characters were to get from Sea Cliff, out on Long Island, to Coney Island in 1892.  Having had an apartment in Brooklyn for four years, I knew how to do it, but what was it like over 130 years ago. It would have taken some time but could be done. In fact, one could say that Coney Island's tourist facilities went hand in hand with the making of transportation routes to the ever popular spot. When that transportation got cheaper and faster, Coney Island boomed. 

My character, Sheriff Tom Turner has lived out west all his life. The year is 1892, and his daughter has married a young man from a wealthy family that moved West several years before. Now that young gentleman is returning to New York with his new bride in tow and her parents. Culture shock is putting it mildly when our little family sees New York City for the first time and begins sightseeing. But one of Sheriff Tom's favorite places is Coney Island. Thank goodness the transportation system was there or my poor characters might never have made it.

They marvel at the barkers and vendors on the boardwalk and Sheriff Tom wins his share of prizes for the women folk at anything having to do with taking aim at something. He's a crack shot after all. Little did Tom know that the first railroad to reach Coney Island was made up of cars pulled by horses in 1860. The terminal was at Van Sicklen's near the beach at the time. Nowadays, the terminal is far inland. 

In 1876 it got way easier to reach Coney Island by road. The Ocean Parkway, (today known simply as Ocean Parkway, they dropped the "the")was  a seventy foot wide roadway that was beautified with trees and shrubbery. It ran from Brooklyn's Prospect Park to the ocean. Almost completely straight, Ocean Parkway was flanked by two gravel roads each twenty five feet wide, perfect for racing surreys. Today it's a busy thoroughfare and I've walked it many times as our apartment wasn't far from Prospect park and if one wanted to hike to the Prospect Park Zoo, you cut down Ocean Parkway. 

There weren't any east-west forms of transportation at Coney Island, or so much as a street until about 1890. You had to use the railroad or a ship that happened to go to the section of Coney Island that you wanted. Surprisingly, a lot of the railroads owned land on Coney Island. So naturally they aimed to have customers frequent their amusements, restaurants, hotels and bathing pavilions. Money wasn't made in bringing tourists to and from Coney Island, but in the money they spent while on day trips or extended vacations. 

So if you're ever in New York, enjoy all the history there. My dad used to tell me you could live there for a couple of years and not even come close to seeing it all. He was right. I had my apartment for four years, and never scratched the surface! But Coney Island was one of the fun places to go and whenever anyone from out west came to visit, it was always on their list of places to see. Bummer that we couldn't race another surrey on the way there!

Until Next Time,

Kit