The Coney Island History Project’s exhibition center opens for the 2009 season on May 23 with the new exhibit “Coney Island Icons: The Story Behind the Landmarks of the World's Playground.� May 23 will also mark 20 years for the Wonder Wheel and the Parachute Jump as New York City Landmarks. They were both designated on May 23, 1989.

Wonder Wheel

The 135-foot-diameter Wonder Wheel was erected at its present location by Herman J. Garms Sr. and began operation on Memorial Day, 1920. The thrill ride was designed by Charles Herman and built by the Eccentric Ferris Wheel Amusement Company. Depending on the color of the two dozen metal-mesh cars you chose to ride in you might have gotten a bigger thrill than you bargained for. If you chose any of the 16 colored cars, the car would excitingly and unpredictably detach itself from the wheel’s perimeter and dash to the center and then roll with increasing speed out to the opposite rim. The white cars made the trip demurely along the wheel’s entire circumference. The squeamish soon learned which cars to ride.

The Parachute Jump

When the New York World’s Fair closed in 1941, the proprietors of Steeplechase Park at Coney Island purchased the Life Savers Corporation Parachute Tower (everyone called it the Parachute Jump — now it is called the “Eiffel Tower of Brooklyn�) and re-erected it in their park adjacent to the boardwalk where it operated as a concession until 1968.

The device was invented by Commander James H. Strong, a retired U.S. Navy aviator, who created the 360-foot-high steel structure, from which one could fall 250 feet to the ground with the protection of a parachute. It was originally used for the purpose of training sailors and soldiers.

At the World’s Fair a half million visitors “jumped� from the tower, and on one famous evening the jump became jammed, and a young society couple, the J. Cornelius Rathbornes, of Old Westbury, spent five hours one hundred feet in the air. Their fate was immortalized by a photographer, Jerome Zerbe, who descended in an adjacent parachute to record them in their anguish.

The landmark structure is presently in good condition after being stabilized by the Parks Department in the early 1990s. According to Coney Island officials, if somebody wanted to, they could get it up and running again.

The exhibit opening this weekend will tell the story of all four of Coney Island’s city landmarks —The Cyclone Roller Coaster, Wonder Wheel, Parachute Jump and Childs Building. It is curated by Charles Denson, author of the award-winning book Coney Island: Lost and Found. CIHP is under the Cyclone Roller Coaster at 824 Surf Avenue just east of W. 10th Street.

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