Coney Island

Coney Island, residential community and amusement area, in the borough of Brooklyn, New York City, on the Atlantic Ocean. The silting of a narrow tidal creek has made Coney Island a peninsula of Long Island. Attractions include the New York Aquarium and a 5-km (3-mi) boardwalk along the beachfront. The area developed slowly as a seaside resort in the early 19th century, but by the 1880s it began its rapid growth as an amusement center. Since the 1950s, it has declined as an amusement and resort center but has grown as a residential district.