For poor and working-class New York City dwellers in decades past, a luxury resort vacation was a fantasy, an indulgence available only to the wealthy. But almost any New Yorker could travel to Coney Island, a five-mile-long sandy strip in the southern part of the borough of Brooklyn. Once there, they could frolic in the Atlantic Ocean and build sand castles to their delight, dine on hot dogs, and ride on roller coasters and carousels.

Actually, Coney Island had initially attracted well-to-do Manhattanites. In the 1840s, steamships began bringing visitors to its beach; two decades later, horse cars made excursions there. In the 1860s and 1870s, large luxurious resort hotels were built. Given its accessibility, however, Coney Island eventually became a desirable destination for all New Yorkers. Bridge construction between Manhattan and Brooklyn and the development of the New York City subway system in the late...