Sea Lion Park

Sea Lion Park was an amusement park on Coney Island featuring water-based attractions and mechanical rides designed to entertain visitors. The water chute with flat-bottomed boats sliding down ramps and the Flip Flap Railway were its main attractions alongside live animal performances.

The park was established in 1895 as North America's first permanent enclosed amusement park with a unified admission system. It operated until 1902, when new operators leased it and transformed it into a different venue.

The sea lion shows were entirely new entertainment for American parks and showed visitors a different kind of attraction beyond mechanical rides. This form of performance became a model for other parks seeking to offer live animal entertainment.

The park covered sixteen acres with different zones for its various attractions and shows. Visitors should plan to spend several hours exploring the different areas and trying multiple rides.

The Flip Flap Railway featured a complete vertical loop, one of the first roller coasters to attempt this inversion maneuver in America. This daring design caused intense physical forces that riders experienced during the turn, making it a notable early engineering experiment.