The rides still standing at Coney Island

What you can still see and ride at Coney Island, and how each old ride survived.

The Cyclone, Parachute Jump and Wonder Wheel at dusk · Bogframe · CC BY-SA 4.0

Three old rides still carry riders at Coney Island: the Wonder Wheel from 1920, the Cyclone roller coaster from 1927, and the B&B Carousell. A fourth, the Parachute Jump, still stands on the boardwalk but no longer carries anyone. Two parks run the rides today. Deno's Wonder Wheel Park is run by the Vourderis family, Wikipedia says. Luna Park, opened in 2010, runs the Cyclone, the carousel and the newer steel Thunderbolt.

The Cyclone, the carousel and the Parachute Jump each came close to being lost, and each was saved a different way. The Wonder Wheel changed hands in 1983, when the Vourderis family bought it. Astroland leased the Cyclone after the city planned to tear it down. A private donor bought the carousel for the city. The Parachute Jump stayed up after a city auction drew no bids.

What could you ride in 2026?

Luna Park opened its 2026 season on Saturday, March 28, Time Out New York reported. The Cyclone ran that first weekend. On Sunday, March 29, the first 99 riders got a free ride and an egg cream.

Sources differ on when Deno's opened in 2026. A Brownstoner article in May said Luna Park and Deno's both opened in March. Deno's website gave April 12, with kiddie rides at 11 a.m. and adult rides at noon. We could not settle it.

The Parachute Jump has not been a ride since the 1960s. It stands on the boardwalk between West 16th and West 19th Streets, in Steeplechase Plaza.

Both parks run on a seasonal schedule. In October 2026 we could not confirm either park's fall hours. In 2016, Atlas Obscura described the Wonder Wheel as running from about Easter to Halloween, but that is old. Check each park's own site before you go.

The Wonder Wheel: one family's wheel since 1983

The Wonder Wheel opened on Memorial Day 1920. It is 150 feet tall and has 24 cabins. Eight are fixed to the rim, like a normal Ferris wheel. The other 16 slide inward on winding tracks as the wheel turns, then swing back out. Each kind has its own line.

Each rotation takes ten minutes, and a ride is two rotations. The wheel can carry 864 riders an hour. Its busiest day was July 4, 1947, when it carried 14,506 people.

Fred Garms and his cousin Walter Kerner Sr. sold the wheel to Denos Vourderis in 1983. Atlas Obscura says Vourderis was born in Aigion, Greece, in 1920, the eighth of 22 children. He came to the United States at 14 and first sold hot dogs from a pushcart in Manhattan. Wikipedia calls Deno's the last family-operated amusement park in Coney Island and says the family has turned down offers to sell. The street in front, once West 12th Street, is now Denos Vourderis Place.

A ticket rose from 50 cents in 1976 to $1.25 in 1981. Hurricane Sandy flooded Deno's park in 2012, but the wheel was only slightly damaged and reopened the next year.

The wheel became New York City Landmark no. 1708 on May 23, 1989. Atlas Obscura says it joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Wikipedia gives no National Register date, so we could not confirm that one. Wikipedia calls it the oldest continuously operating ride at Coney Island. But it did not run at all in 2020, the first lost season in its history, so it has not run every year.

The Cyclone: the coaster the city planned to tear down

The Cyclone is a wooden roller coaster designed by Vernon Keenan. It opened on June 26, 1927, and cost a reported $146,000 to $175,000 to build. A ride was 25 cents, or 35 cents on Sundays and holidays.

Sources do not agree on its size. Wikipedia says it is 75 feet tall. It says the 85 feet you often see is measured to the sign above the lift hill. Luna Park's own page gives an 85-foot plunge and calls it the second-steepest wooden coaster in the world. Wikipedia ranked its drop ninth-steepest as of 2014. Ride time differs too: about one minute 50 seconds in Wikipedia's text, 2:30 in its infobox, and 2 minutes per NYC Tourism.

Each train seats 24 riders, two across, with lap bars and no headrests. Only one of the three trains runs at a time. Wikipedia lists a minimum height of 54 inches.

After the city bought the ride in 1969, it soon piled up 101 safety violations. When Astroland won the lease in 1975, it spent $60,000 on repairs. The Brooklyn Paper wrote in 2012 that the Albert family, who ran Astroland, "rushed to Coney's rescue" when the city decided to demolish the coaster.

The Cyclone became New York City Landmark no. 1636 in 1988. Wikipedia's infobox says June 12, 1988, but its own reference dates the landmark report July 12, 1988. It joined the National Register on June 25, 1991. Luna Park took over the ride in 2011. Great Coasters International finished a refurbishment in 2016. After the ride stopped mid-run in August 2024, the city cited Luna Park for two violations.

NYC Tourism retells a 1948 New York Times report that a mute man, Emilio Franco, got his voice back on the ride. His first words were that he felt sick. In August 1977, 19-year-old Richard Rodriguez rode it for 104 hours, eating hot dogs and M&Ms between rides. Photographer Lily Binder called it "the most physically and mentally cleansing minute of your life because you can't think."

Each opening weekend, Luna Park gives free rides and egg creams to as many riders as the coaster is years old. It was 98 riders in 2025 and 99 in 2026, counting down to the Cyclone's centennial in 2027.

The Parachute Jump: why a closed ride still stands

The Parachute Jump is a 250-foot, 170-ton open steel tower with twelve arms. At the 1939 World's Fair a pole on top made it 262 feet tall. It came to Steeplechase Park in 1941. 6sqft calls it all that remains of Steeplechase.

Sources disagree on the year it last carried riders. Coney Island historian Charles Denson and the Coney Island History Project say 1964 and call 1968 a repeated error. The Brooklyn Paper says it was shut in 1965, and a 1965 Daily News article said it had been stripped of its wires and chutes. NYC Parks' website and engineer Helen Harrison say 1968. Harrison says its last documented incident was May 30, 1968. We follow Denson's 1964, since his group studies the site, but 1968 still appears widely.

In 1966, the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce asked the Landmarks Commission to protect it.

The tower now holds three listings. It joined the National Register on September 2, 1980, and the state register on October 23, 1981. It became New York City Landmark no. 1638 on May 23, 1989, the same day as the Wonder Wheel. A 2018 article on 6sqft says it was named a landmark in 1977. That date does not match any of the dated listings, so we use 1989 for the city landmark.

The tower has lights for night shows. Its lights were switched on in 2006 and replaced in 2013. The frame carries about 8,000 fixtures for light shows. It has been lit in memory of events such as Kobe Bryant's death.

The B&B Carousell: bought for the city, restored in Ohio

The B&B Carousell was built by Coney Island maker William F. Mangels, with wooden horses carved by Marcus Illions. Its build date is disputed. Wikipedia, drawing on the National Register nomination, says about 1906 to 1909. A Coney Island History Project caption says 1919. Wikipedia's date comes from the National Register nomination, so it is probably the better one, but we could not rule out 1919.

It has 50 horses and 2 chariots. Thirty-six of the horses move up and down.

The carousel nearly left Coney Island. Developer Joe Sitt bought the land under it. When the lease ran out, he evicted the operator, McCullough. In 2005 a private donor bought the carousel for the city. The horses went to Ohio for restoration from 2008 to 2013, paid for with $1.7 million from the city's economic development agency. The carousel has stood in Luna Park since 2013. It joined the National Register on February 23, 2016. Wikipedia calls it the last operating carousel in Coney Island.

Luna Park and the Thunderbolt: what replaced Astroland

Today's Luna Park stands where Astroland stood. Astroland opened in 1962 on 3.1 acres at 1000 Surf Avenue. Its space theme came from John Glenn's orbit, and early rides simulated trips to the moon for 50 cents. On November 28, 2006, the Albert family sold Astroland to Thor Equities for $30 million. Thor announced a $1.5 billion year-round resort that was never built. Astroland closed on September 7, 2008.

The city then bought a large part of the amusement zone from Joe Sitt for $100 million, the Brooklyn Paper reported in 2010. Mayor Bloomberg announced on February 16, 2010, that Zamperla and Central Amusement International had won a 10-year lease on the 3.16-acre site. Luna Park opened on May 29, 2010.

One Astroland ride lingered. On July 2, 2013, Luna Park was evacuated because the old AstroTower was swaying. Crews cut the top down overnight, the park reopened at 3 p.m. on July 4, and by July 6 only a four-foot stump was left. The Astroland rocket now sits as a monument inside Deno's Wonder Wheel Park.

The park has grown since. A 2018 city plan for a log flume, zip line and ropes course would enlarge it by 50 percent and add 100 jobs. Building began in October 2021, and four new rides opened in June 2023, including the Tony's Express coaster and the Leti's Treasure log flume. Wikipedia's counts of the park's rides do not agree with each other: 36 attractions in one place and 28 in its infobox. The park is also larger now than the 3.16-acre site in the 2010 lease, because it was expanded later.

The steel Thunderbolt opened on June 14, 2014, after delays that began at Memorial Day. It is a $9 million Zamperla ride with a 90-degree drop and four inversions. Each train is one car with nine seats, three rows of three. Wikipedia lists a minimum height of 50 inches. Sources give slightly different numbers. Wikipedia lists 2,234 feet of track and a top speed of 56 mph, and Luna Park lists 2,233 feet. NYC Tourism lists 55 mph. Drop height is 112 feet in Wikipedia and 115 feet in NYC Tourism.

The name is borrowed. The first Thunderbolt was a wooden coaster that George Moran ran from 1925 to 1982. Luna Park says only that it ran into the early 1980s. It was torn down in 2000. Molly and George Moran lived in a house under the coaster.

What should you check before you go?

We could not find out what happened to Luna Park's city lease after its first 10-year term would have ended in 2020. Prices, ride lists and hours change each year. Check lunaparknyc.com and denoswonderwheel.com for fall hours and for 2027 before you go.

Sources

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