Coney Island Boardwalk

One hundred years ago today … The first stake of the Coney Island boardwalk was driven in by Brooklyn Borough President Edward J. Riegelman. 

According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

Over 2,500 persons attended the ceremonies at 5 o'clock, when a parade led by St. Lucy's Band formed at the foot of Ocean Parkway and marched to the shelter house, where the Rev. Father Walter A. Kerwin pronounced a benediction. Returning to the ocean front, where an improvised platform had been erected at the foot of the Parkway, the crowds witnessed the driving of the stake into the sand with a silver hanimer and cheered the proceedings.

"This is probably one of the greatest improvements on the Eastern line of America," said Mr. Riegelmann, who wielded the hammer. "The Coney Island boardwalk has been the talk of the city for the past twenty years. Time and again different committees from this, as well as other sections of the city, have started movements to get the boardwalk, only to have the plan fall dead again.”

– “CONEY BOARDWALK READY BY JULY 31,  RIEGELMANN SAYS,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 2 October, 1921, p.4.

– Jonathan Goldman, Oct 1, 2021

TAGS: beach, construction, recreation