In scale, in variety, in sheer inventiveness, Coney Island was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, and eventually, everyone came to see it. At the turn of the century, Coney Island exploded in a forest of glittering electric towers and a riot of rides, restaurants, recreated disasters, freak shows, and historical displays when three vast amusement parks -- Steeplechase, Luna Park, and Dreamland -- were built. Indicative of its overwhelming popularity, on a single day in September 1906, 200,000 postcards were mailed from Coney Island. A showcase for the wonders of the machine age, Coney Island was an extraordinary amusement empire that astonished, delighted, and shocked the nation -- and took Americans from the Victorian age into the modern world.