History

Amusement park is the more generic term for a collection of amusement rides and other entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a fairly large group of people. An amusement park is more elaborate than a simple city park or playground, as an amusement park is meant to cater to adults, teenagers, and small children.An amusement park may be permanent or temporary, usually periodic, such as a few days or weeks per year. The temporary (often annual) amusement park with mobile rides etc. is called a funfair or carnival.The original amusement parks were the historical precursors to the modern theme parks as well as the more traditional midway arcades and rides at county and state fairs (in the United States). Today, amusement parks have largely been replaced by theme parks, and the two terms are often used interchangeably.For a remarkable example of a European park, dating from 1843 and still existing, see Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen. Even older is the Oktoberfest which is not only a beer festival but also provides a lot of amusement park features, dating back to 1810, when the first event was held in Munich, Germany.During the peak of the "golden age" of amusement parks from roughly the turn of the 20th century through the late 1920s, Coney Island at one point had three distinct amusement parks: Steeplechase Park, Luna Park (opened in 1903), and Dreamland (opened in 1904). However, the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II during the 1940s saw the decline of the amusement park industry. Furthermore, fire was a constant threat in those days, as much of the construction within the amusement parks of the era was wooden. In 1911, Dreamland was the first Coney Island amusement park to completely burn down; in 1944, Luna Park also burned to the ground.The theme park is the modern amusement park, either based on a central theme or, divided into several distinctly themed areas, or "spaces" as is often used. Large resorts, such as Walt Disney World in Florida (United States), actually house several different theme parks within their confines. The first such built park still in operation is 'Bakken' at Klampenborg, north of Copenhagen. It was founded in 1583. Walt Disney is credited with having originated the concept of the themed amusement park. Disneyland was based loosely on Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Children's Fairyland in Oakland, California and various World's Fairs. Several Disneyland attractions — Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, "it's a small world", and the dinosaurs of Primeval World — were built by Disney's in-house manufacturing department (Walt Disney Imagineering) for the 1964 New York World's Fair. When the fair closed, Disney relocated the shows to a permanent home at Disneyland.