{"id":1268,"date":"2006-07-10T00:02:36","date_gmt":"2006-07-10T08:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2006\/07\/turn_on_the_bright_lights.html"},"modified":"2006-07-10T00:02:36","modified_gmt":"2006-07-10T08:02:36","slug":"turn_on_the_bri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/07\/turn_on_the_bri.html","title":{"rendered":"Turn On The Bright Lights!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coney Island’s Parachute Jump has been outfitted with lights<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The 277-foot tower, shaped like a giant blossom at the end of a tapering stalk, dropped its last screaming rider in 1965 and fell silent. For years it rotted, a skeletal symbol of Coney Island’s long decline, narrowly escaping demolition.<\/p>\n

Last night, the city turned the lights back on. As an eager crowd jammed the boardwalk, a switch was thrown and the Parachute Jump was bathed in red and purple light, as shivering patterns chased each other across its girders.<\/p>\n

There are still no riders, and no parachutes, but the jump is back in the night sky above the boardwalk.<\/p>\n

“Not exactly how it was when I was a kid,” said Brooklyn’s borough president, Marty Markowitz, “but it will be a beacon of light for this and future generations, harking and heralding Coney Island as a place where dreams come true.”<\/p>\n

The reviews from those assembled were muted. Phyllis Carbo, 70, who rode on the Parachute Jump as a girl, hesitated when asked for her opinion. “I’m running for Assembly on the Republican line, so I have to be very careful,” she said. “I’m impressed.”<\/p>\n

Even the evening’s master of ceremonies, Dick Zigun, one of Coney Island’s leading boosters, pronounced the light show “very subtle.”<\/p>\n

Others were less restrained.<\/p>\n

“Did they light it already? Is this it?” asked Joe Joya, 63.<\/p>\n

His wife, Jane, 61, said, “I thought it was going to be a lot brighter. I thought that the lights were going to be more of a Vegas type of thing.”<\/p>\n

Her husband added: “You’re not going to see that from Staten Island.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See also: Parachute Jump<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coney Island’s Parachute Jump has been outfitted with lights: The 277-foot tower, shaped like a giant blossom at the end of a tapering stalk, dropped its last screaming rider in 1965 and fell silent. For years it rotted, a skeletal symbol of Coney Island’s long decline, narrowly escaping demolition. Last night, the city turned the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,30,29,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brooklyn","category-historical","category-huzzah","category-insert_muted_trumpets_sad_wahwah_here"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}