Amusement park

Amusement parks evolved from European fairs, pleasure gardens, and large picnic areas, which were created for people's recreation.

[9] By the 18th and 19th centuries, they had evolved into places of entertainment for the masses, where the public could view freak shows, acrobatics, conjuring, and juggling, take part in competitions and walk through menageries.

It regularly drew enormous crowds, with its paths often noted for romantic assignations; tightrope walkers, hot air balloon ascents, concerts and fireworks providing amusement.

"[2] To make sure that the fair was a financial success, the planners included a dedicated amusement concessions area called the Midway Plaisance.

Also, the experience of the enclosed ideal city with wonder, rides, culture and progress (electricity), was based on the creation of an illusory place.

For Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, on the Atlantic Ocean, a horse-drawn streetcar line brought pleasure seekers to the beach beginning in 1829.

The lighting and its accompanying pageants reinforced Blackpool's status as the North of England's most prominent holiday resort, and its specifically working class character.

The combination of the nearby population center of New York City and the ease of access to the area made Coney Island the embodiment of the American amusement park.

[2] Fueled by the efforts of Frederick Ingersoll who borrowed the name, other "Luna Parks" were quickly erected worldwide and opened to rave reviews.

[29] The park also installed other rides common to the time including a smaller roller coaster, the Joy Wheel, Miniature Railway, The Whip and the River Caves.

Between 1920 and 1935 over £500,000 was invested in the site, constantly adding new rides and facilities and culminating in the construction of the Dreamland Cinema complex in 1934 which stands to this day.

War caused the affluent urban population to move to the suburbs, television became a source of entertainment, and families went to amusement parks less often.

[2] By the 1950s, factors such as urban decay, crime, and even desegregation in the ghettos led to changing patterns in how people chose to spend their free time.

The traditional amusement parks which survived, for example, Kennywood, in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, and Cedar Point, in Sandusky, Ohio, did so in spite of the odds.

Universal Studios Florida opened on June 7, 1990 (delayed by one year) to great fanfare, but the primary attractions were experiencing severe technical difficulties.

None of the current non-Magic Kingdom parks satisfied the Japanese, but one concept thrown away for Disneyland's second gate inspired a new one: DisneySea.

[47][33][35] In the early 1990s, Michael Eisner wanted to make Disneyland in the image of Walt Disney World's resort style.

However, Hong Kong Disneyland was higher quality than the other black sheep, but still lacked the number of attractions that was needed, just like California Adventure and Walt Disney Studios Park.

However, Rowling was disappointed with Disney's small-scale plans to install an omnimover attraction themed to the Defense Against the Dark Arts class with one shop and one restaurant in the former submarine lagoon at Magic Kingdom.

To remedy this, J.K Rowling wrestled creative control from Universal and forced them to make the land a full scale, realistic re-creation of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts without being a refurbishment of an existing area.

[33][49][50][51][45] Today, there are over 475 amusement parks in the United States, ranging from mega-parks and those that are operated by Warner Bros., Disney, Six Flags and NBCUniversal.

In the 1920s, Walter Knott and his family sold berries from a roadside stand, which grew to include a restaurant serving fried chicken dinners.

Lake Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut, may be the true oldest continuously operating amusement park in the United States, open since 1846.

In the late 1950s, Wynne visited Disneyland and was inspired to create an affordable, closer, and larger amusement park that would be filled with fantasy.

Within a short time, the problems of handling such large amounts of coins led to the development of a ticket system that, while now out of use, is still part of the amusement-park lexicon.

The origins of roller coasters can be traced back to 17th-century Russia, where gravity-driven attractions, which at first only consisted of individual sleds or carts riding freely down chutes on top of specially constructed snow slopes with piles of sand at the bottom for braking, were used as winter leisure activities.

The Columbian Exposition of 1893 was a particularly fertile testing ground for amusement rides and included some that the public had never seen before, such as the world's first Ferris wheel, one of the most recognized products of the fair.

There is a core set of flat rides which most amusement parks have, including the Enterprise, Tilt-A-Whirl, Gravitron, chairswing, swinging inverter ship, twister, and top spin.

[citation needed] Amusement parks often feature multiple roller coasters of primarily timber or steel construction.

Amusement park railways tend to be narrow-gauge, meaning the space between their rails is smaller than that of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge railroads.