A Trip to the Moon (attraction)

A Trip to the Moon was a pioneering early dark ride, best known as the flagship and namesake of Luna Park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City.

A Trip to the Moon was originally designed by Frederic Thompson for the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo, New York.

The first version of the ride involved a simulated trip for thirty passengers from the fairgrounds to the Moon aboard the airship-ornithopter Luna, with visions displayed of Niagara Falls, the North American continent and the Earth's disc.

The passengers then left the craft to walk around a cavernous papier-mâché lunar surface peopled by costumed characters playing Selenites.

Unlike its original Buffalo incarnation, the new version of the ride passed over a panorama of Coney Island and Manhattan's skyscrapers before rising into the clouds.