Parachute Jump
1711 Boardwalk West | also 1904 Surf Avenue | Coney Island | built 2000
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1939
A retired Navy commander's parachute tower is built for the New York World's Fair
Commander James H. Strong, a retired Navy officer, designed the ride from parachute-training towers he had tested in New Jersey in the 1930s. Elwyn E. Seelye & Company engineered the 170-ton steel tower, Bethlehem Steel made it and Skinner, Cook & Babcock raised it at the Flushing Meadows fairgrounds in Queens, for almost $99,000. With a flagpole it stood 262 feet, before it was moved to Coney Island.
- 1939
The Life Savers Parachute Jump opens at the World's Fair and gets a flagpole to top a Soviet statue
The ride opened on May 27, 1939, sponsored by the candy maker Life Savers, with only five of its twelve parachutes working at first. Within three days a 12-foot flagpole was fixed to the top of the 250-foot tower after members of the public objected that a statue on the Soviet Pavilion stood higher than the American flag. Rides cost 40 cents for adults and 25 cents for children.
“…a 12-foot flagpole was added atop the original 250-foot-tall tower to surpass the height of a statue within the Soviet Pavilion…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1939
A married couple is stranded on the Parachute Jump for five hours and La Guardia congratulates them
On July 12, 1939, tangled cables stranded a married couple high on the tower for five hours overnight. Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, who was at the fair when they got stuck, congratulated them on their courage, and they came back to ride again the next day. At least two other groups got stuck in the ride's first season.
“…entangled cables left a married couple aloft for five hours in the middle of the night. The couple returned to ride again the next day…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1940
A couple marries on the Parachute Jump during the fair's second season
During the fair's second season a couple were married on the Parachute Jump, which one newspaper called the first "parachute ceremony." The ride had been moved that spring to a spot near the fair's subway station and reopened on June 22, 1940, more than a month after the fair itself. It finished the fair as its second most popular amusement, behind Billy Rose's Aquacade.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1941
The Tilyou brothers buy the Parachute Jump and rebuild it at Steeplechase Park on the Boardwalk
After the fair, Frank and George Tilyou Jr., who owned Steeplechase Park, paid $150,000 for the ride. It was taken apart in January 1941 and put up again on the site of a roller coaster that had burned in the park's September 1939 fire, next to the boardwalk. Because of the windier shore, it got 30-foot-deep foundations, and it reopened in May 1941.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1964
Steeplechase Park closes for good and the Parachute Jump stops running, though some sources say 1968
Steeplechase Park closed for the last time on September 20, 1964, and Fred Trump bought the property the next year. Historians such as Charles Denson and the Coney Island History Project say the jump closed with the park in 1964, while other accounts, including the city's own landmark report, give 1968. The ride had drawn up to half a million riders a season.
“The Coney Island historian Charles Denson explained that the jump closed in 1964 but that many publications give an erroneous date of 1968.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1977
The Landmarks Commission designates the Parachute Jump, but the Board of Estimate rejects it
The Coney Island Chamber of Commerce and the Gravesend Historical Society worked to save the abandoned tower. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated it on July 12, 1977, but on October 20 the Board of Estimate denied the designation. Engineering reports finding the structure sound helped ease the threat of demolition. The commission designated it again on May 23, 1989.
- 2006
The first night light show plays on the Parachute Jump
Leni Schwendinger's lighting system of 450 LEDs and 17 floodlamps was switched on in a first show on July 7, 2006, after a two-year, $1.45 million project. Its six animations followed the local calendar, such as the Mermaid Parade and national holidays, and avoided green because it would not show on the red frame. A 2013 renovation raised the count to 8,000 LEDs.
“The first night-time light show was held on July 7, 2006. The installation contained six animations and used most colors except for green…”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Parachute JumpWikipedia
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