Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Only the top loops of the roller coaster are visible in this 1937 aerial photograph of a
flooded Coney Island in Cincinnati. The park opened in 1886 and originally was called “the
Coney Island of the West,” but the name was soon shortened to simply “Coney Island.”
Generations of fun-seekers crowded the park each summer, but after years of declining
business, it closed in 1970.
Lunken Airport was the center of early aviation in Cincinnati. In 1929, American Airlines
had its beginnings there, offering flights to Chicago. The 1937 flood spilled over a nearby
levee and inundated the airport, as shown in this aerial view. The airport's location in the
flood plain spelled an end to plans for its expansion. In 1946, the airlines pulled out of
Lunken and started operations at the Greater Cincinnati Airport in Northern Kentucky.
