Coney Island is the name of both a neighborhood and a landmark amusement park. Between 1880 and World War II, Coney Island was the largest amusement park in the United States. Switchback Railway, a gravity coaster was built in 1884.

In “The Great Gatsby”, F. Scott Fitzgerald described this area as “a valley of ashes”. It would later be transformed into the 1,200-acre site where the world would converge in 1939, to witness highlights that included exhibitions by companies like General Electric, IBM, RCA, Borden, American Tobacco and Coca Cola.