A boardwalk of amusement rides, arcades and food stands, with the beach emptying out by October.
What Coney Island looks like
The Riegelmann Boardwalk runs 2.7 miles along the shoreline, its wood planking laid in a 45 degree chevron pattern over a steel and concrete base. Some sections have been replaced with concrete or plastic decking, so the colour and texture of the surface changes from block to block. Painted steel ride structures face it on the inland side, with arcades, food stands and apartment towers rising up behind them.
The rises 150 feet over Deno's park, a steel frame Ferris wheel with swinging and stationary cars. The Cyclone's white wooden track runs along West 10th Street at 834 Surf Avenue, cresting at 75 feet. 's arched entrance stands a block west, red and blue over the midway.
Nathan's stand sits at the corner of Surf and Stillwell, a long order counter under awnings facing both streets. By October most of the ride operators have shut for the year. The boardwalk, the beach, Nathan's and the aquarium stay open through winter.
The elevated subway terminal at Stillwell Avenue sits two blocks north, its platforms under a steel arched canopy. The Aquarium's entrance faces the boardwalk at the district's eastern end, a teal cut metal arch over the walkway.
Shot in Coney Island
For Men in Black 3, the production filmed around the Wonder Wheel and the rest of Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park. The ride itself appears on screen, inside the park built up around it.
Men in Black 3, 2012
The Wonder Wheel
Men in Black 3 filmed scenes in and around Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, with the Wonder Wheel itself on screen. The ride still turns in the same spot, inside the same park. Street View
What Coney Island can double for
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, California
The Giant Dipper is a wooden roller coaster from the same era as the Cyclone, and the boardwalk's arcades and ride midway sit directly on the sand the same way Coney Island's does. Both have a seafront promenade backed by stucco and wood framed concessions. Palm trees and the Pacific's steeper beach profile give away the coast in a wide shot. Try searching wooden roller coaster now.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach has the same seafront mix of painted steel rides, arcades and food stands facing a promenade, built up across the same decades as Coney Island's own rides. The Big Dipper gives the park a similar period silhouette, a wooden coaster built in the 1920s. British road markings, double decker buses and the Irish Sea's grey light would need dressing out to pass for the Atlantic side. Try searching painted steel rides now.
Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey
Casino Pier's rides and boardwalk arcades are a smaller, newer version of the same seafront mix, useful for a present day setting rather than Coney Island's older ironwork. The pier runs narrower, with fewer rides and a shorter midway. A longer lens helps hide how much smaller the pier's footprint is against Coney Island's. Try searching boardwalk rides now.
