Thursday, February 9, 2017

Vintage parachute ride photos






The famous parachute ride in Coney Island was developed originally to be used as a  training tool for parachutists in the military. After a while, the inventor James H Strong realized it's potential as an amusement park ride. The first attempt was one he built for a Chicago amusement park in the late thirties and  then got permission to build one for the 1939 New York's Fair. The ride has success but also a few mishaps. After the fair it was moved to Coney Island where it was a great attraction as a ride. By the late sixties it suffered a slow decline just as the whole Coney Island area did and was closed and forgotten. These archival from the mid seventies photos are from this period of abandonment. Recently, a 2 million dollars restoration has taken place but the ride is not used for people it's a monument or a symbol for Coney Island's rebirth. It is still a great object to photograph and part of the fabric of New York City. These are all Kodachromes that were scanned. One was converted to black and white because the slide had lost much of its hues.

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