| Coney Island is a peninsula, formerly an island, in southernmost Brooklyn, New York City, USA, with a beach on the Atlantic Ocean. The neighborhood of the same name is a community of 60000 people in the western part of the peninsula, with Seagate to its west; Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east; and Gravesend to the north. The area was a major resort and site of amusement parks that reached its peak in the early 20th century. It declined in popularity after World War II and endured years of neglect. In recent years, the area has seen the opening of MCU Park, home to the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team. Native American inhabitants, the Lenape, called the island Narrioch[citation needed] (land without shadows), because, as is true of other south shore Long Island beaches, its compass orientation keeps the beach area in sunlight all day.[citation needed] The Dutch name for the island was Conyne Eylandt (Konijnen Eiland in modern Dutch spelling),meaning Rabbit Island. This name is found on the New Netherland map of 1639 by Johannes Vingboon. (New York State and New York City were originally a Dutch colony and settlement, named Nieuw Nederlandt and Nieuw Amsterdam.) As on other Long Island barrier islands, Coney Island had many and diverse rabbits and rabbit hunting prospered until resort development eliminated their habitat. It is generally accepted by scholars that Coney Island is an English adaptation of the Dutch name, Konijnen Eiland. Coney is also ... |
