[3][4] The diagonal pattern was intended to "facilitate ease in walking", according to American Lumberman magazine,[5] while the 6-foot-wide (1.8 m) wooden axes were designed for chairs to be rolled down the boardwalk.

[a] These no longer exist but were designed in the Mediterranean Revival style and contained arched doorways, along with tiled roofs supported by corner piers and Tuscan columns.

[11] There were also "comfort stations", or restrooms, beneath the boardwalk, characterized by ornamental semicircular stairs and rooftop terraces at the same height as the deck.

[32] Other attractions on the boardwalk include the Thunderbolt roller coaster and the Abe Stark Recreation Center, as well as small amusement rides, shops, and restaurants.

[21][33] The First Symphony of the Sea, a wall relief created by Japanese artist Toshio Sasaki, was installed along the boardwalk, outside the New York Aquarium, in 1993.

[34] Steeplechase Pier, the only one remaining on Coney Island's beach, extends 1,040 feet (317 m) southward from the boardwalk's intersection with West 17th Street.

[49] New railroad lines, built after the American Civil War, served Coney Island's restaurants, hotels, bathing pavilions, theaters, the waterfront, and other attractions.

[66] A bill proposed in the New York State Legislature in 1901 would have required property owners to pay half of the boardwalk's $350,000 construction cost.

[70][72] This plan was endorsed by the New York City Board of Estimate, which in April 1913 approved a special committee's report on the feasibility of building such a structure.

[73] This time, Coney Island residents largely supported the proposed boardwalk, though there were disputes over whether to pay the $5 million cost through private capital or city funds.

[81] The city approved Brooklyn borough president Edward J. Riegelmann's proposal for an 80-foot-wide (24 m), 9,000-foot-long (2,700 m) boardwalk between Ocean Parkway and Sea Gate in July 1920.

[92] Riegelmann stated that, when the boardwalk was completed, "poor people will no longer have to stand with their faces pressed against wire fences looking at the ocean".

The corporation claimed that the Brooklyn government had allocated $3 million to extend the boardwalk in December 1929, but borough president Henry Hesterberg denied having done so.

"[38][122] In a letter to mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Moses wrote: The boardwalk was constructed too near the water without providing any play areas on the north side.

[126] The project involved rebuilding an 800-foot-long (240 m) stretch of the boardwalk,[127] relocating it 300 feet (91 m) inland and straightening its route; this required the condemnation of 20 buildings and the demolition of the Municipal Baths at West 5th Street.

[143] In addition, workers relocated lighting and emergency phone boxes; realigned Surf Avenue; and erected a lifeguard station with restrooms.

[148] By the 1960s, Coney Island was in decline because of increased crime, insufficient parking facilities, bad weather, and the post-World War II automotive boom.

[150][151] A newspaper article noted in 1961 that between 5,000 and 10,000 people slept on the beach every night, and that the boardwalk was a common place for purse snatchings and muggings.

[152] Since the boardwalk contained a wide-open space underneath, it was a frequent location for such acts as looking up women's skirts, indecent exposure, and kissing.

[154] Local officials, such as then-assemblyman Chuck Schumer, and residents of the surrounding communities petitioned for the Board of Estimate to release $650,000 in funding for repairs to the boardwalk.

[161] In the early 1990s, as part of a $27 million shoreline protection project, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) filled in the area under the boardwalk with sand.

[15][16] That December, after the repairs were announced, City Council members Mark Treyger and Chaim Deutsch suggested designating the boardwalk as a scenic landmark.

[184] The city government announced in November 2019 that it would spend $3.2 million to place anti-terrorism bollards at entrances to the boardwalk, as part of a larger initiative to improve safety in public areas following a deadly 2017 truck attack in Manhattan.

[190][191] The plan had to be approved by mayor-elect Eric Adams, who, as borough president, had opposed the previous proposal to replace the wooden deck with plastic and concrete.

[193] Alec Brook-Krasny, who was reelected[b] to the New York State Assembly in 2022, proposed funding repairs to the boardwalk if a planned casino on Coney Island were approved.

[197] The boardwalk opened up the beach to the millions who visited Coney Island in its heyday, and it became known as the area's "Main Street", supplanting Surf Avenue in that role.

One French observer wrote of the boardwalk, shortly after its opening, "Families which cannot go to the rich watering places come in hordes on Sunday to enjoy the municipal beach.

[24] Films have used the boardwalk as a setting or as a plot narrative, such as Sinners' Holiday (1930), Little Fugitive (1953), Annie Hall (1977), The Warriors (1979), and Requiem for a Dream (2000).

[201] One newspaper described the project thus: "New York scientists and engineers have succeeded where King Canute failed to halt the onward march of the tides.

[102] In 1994, the American Shore & Beach Preservation Association recognized the boardwalk as an "infrastructure accomplishment" comparable to the Catskill Watershed and Central Park.