Editing Amusement park (section)

===Trolley parks and pleasure resorts===
{{Main|Trolley park}}
Many modern amusement parks evolved from earlier pleasure [[resort]]s that had become popular with the public for day-trips or weekend holidays, for example, seaside areas such as [[Blackpool]], United Kingdom and [[Coney Island]], United States.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/playfulcrowdplea0000cros|url-access=registration|title=The Playful Crowd: Pleasure Places In The Twentieth Century|author1=Cross, Gary Scott |author2=Walton, John K. |year=2005|publisher=Columbia University Press|access-date=7 February 2013}}</ref> In the United States, some amusement parks grew from picnic groves established along rivers and lakes that provided bathing and water sports, such as [[Lake Compounce]] in Connecticut, first established as a picturesque picnic park in 1846, and [[Six Flags New England|Riverside Park]] in Massachusetts, founded in the 1870s along the [[Connecticut River]].<ref name = "Samuelson">{{cite book | last =Samuelson | first =Dale | author2 =Wendy Yegoiants | title =The American Amusement Park | publisher =MBI Publishing Company | year =2001 | location =St. Paul, MN | isbn =0-7603-0981-7 | url =https://archive.org/details/americanamusemen00ajps }}</ref>

The trick was getting the public to the seaside or resort location. For [[Coney Island]] in [[Brooklyn]], New York, on the [[Atlantic Ocean]], a [[horsecar|horse-drawn streetcar]] line brought pleasure seekers to the beach beginning in 1829. In 1875, a million passengers rode the Coney Island Railroad, and in 1876 two million visited Coney Island. Hotels and amusements were built to accommodate both the upper classes and the working class at the beach. Its first amusement ride, a [[carousel]], was installed in 1876; the first [[roller coaster]], the "[[Switchback Railway]]", in 1884.

[[File:On the sands at Blackpool 1895.jpg|thumb|[[Blackpool Pleasure Beach|Blackpool Beach]] in [[Blackpool]], United Kingdom, in 1895]]
In England, [[Blackpool]] was a popular beachside location beginning in the 1700s. It rose to prominence as a seaside resort with the completion in 1846 of a [[Blackpool Branch Line|branch line]] to Blackpool from Poulton on the main [[Preston and Wyre Joint Railway]] line.  A sudden influx of visitors, arriving by rail, provided the motivation for entrepreneurs to build accommodation and create new attractions, leading to more visitors and a rapid cycle of growth throughout the 1850s and 1860s.

[[File:The promenade, Blackpool, Lancashire, England, ca. 1898.jpg|thumb|The [[photochrom]] at the Promenade in Blackpool, United Kingdom, {{Circa|1898}}]]
In 1879, large parts of the promenade at Blackpool were wired. 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. It was the forerunner of the present-day [[Blackpool Illuminations]]. By the 1890s, the town had a population of 35,000, and could accommodate 250,000 holidaymakers. The number of annual visitors, many staying for a week, was estimated at three million.

In the final decade of the 19th century, electric [[trolley line]]s were developed in many large American cities. Companies that established the trolley lines also developed [[trolley park]]s as destinations of these lines. Trolley parks such as [[Atlanta]]'s [https://web.archive.org/web/20110717085827/http://southernspaces.org/2008/vale-amusements-modernity-technology-and-atlantas-ponce-de-leon-park-1870-1920 Ponce de Leon Park], or [[Reading, Pennsylvania|Reading's]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20080113234227/http://www.defunctparks.com/parks/PA/carsonia/carsonia.htm Carsonia Park] were initially popular natural leisure spots before local streetcar companies purchased the sites, expanding them from picnic groves to include regular entertainments, mechanical amusements, dance halls, sports fields, boat rides, restaurants and other resort facilities.

[[File:Steel Pier 1910s edit.jpg|thumb|[[Steel Pier]] in [[Atlantic City, New Jersey]], {{Circa|1910s}}]]
Some of these parks were developed in [[resort]] locations, such as bathing resorts at the seaside in [[New Jersey]] and [[New York (state)|New York]]. A premiere example in New Jersey was [[Atlantic City, New Jersey|Atlantic City]], a famous vacation resort. Entrepreneurs erected amusement parks on piers that extended from the boardwalk out over the ocean. The first of several was the Ocean Pier in 1891, followed later by the [[Steel Pier]] in 1898, both of which boasted rides and attractions typical of that time, such as Midway-style games and electric trolley rides. The boardwalk also had the first Roundabout installed in 1892 by William Somers, a wooden predecessor to the [[Ferris Wheel (1893)|Ferris Wheel]]. Somers installed two others in [[Asbury Park, New Jersey|Asbury Park]], New Jersey and [[Coney Island]], New York.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.acmuseum.org/piers.html |title=New Jersey Online: Atlantic City Museum |publisher=Acmuseum.org |access-date=10 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724223606/http://www.acmuseum.org/piers.html |archive-date=24 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Benjamin J. Steinhauser|url=http://www.cityofatlanticcity.org/con_abo_historytimeline.asp |title=Timeline |publisher=City of Atlantic City |date=2 January 1905 |access-date=10 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719011147/http://www.cityofatlanticcity.org/con_abo_historytimeline.asp |archive-date=19 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Another early park was the [[Eldorado Amusement Park]] that opened in 1891 on the banks of the [[Hudson River]], overlooking [[New York City]]. It consisted of 25 acres.<ref>{{cite web|title=Eldorado Park 1948 by the Golden Jubilee Committee of WNY. |url=http://www.weehawkenhistory.org/view_item.php?id=161&back=0&category= |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130801031817/http://www.weehawkenhistory.org/view_item.php?id=161&back=0&category= |archive-date=1 August 2013 }}</ref>