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Brooklyn's "Eiffel Tower" Aglow07-13-06 | News

Brooklyn's "Eiffel Tower" Aglow

The old Coney Island Parachute Jump, defunct since 1964, is now nightly illuminated. Photo courtesy of Leni Schwendinger Light Projects Ltd.

The 277-feet tall, 170-ton steel structure modeled after a paratroop training tower was constructed for the 1939 New York's World's Fair as an amusement ride called the Coney Island Parachute Jump. The Jump moved to Coney Island's Steeplechase Park in 1941 and about a half million people each year experienced the Jump. But in 1964, the Jump was closed and abandoned??"a lonely beacon on the boardwalk left to deteriorate in the salty air.

The tower was declared a landmark in 1988 and in 2000 the N.Y. City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) assumed responsibility to rehabilitate the structure. EDC commissioned lighting designer Leni Schwendinger the task of illuminating the tower.

Schwendinger choreographed six different light sequences.
"Since the Parachute Jump would never again operate as an amusement ride, the lighting design had to evoke the slow climb 200 feet in the air, the feeling of being ???on top of the world' and the excitement of the 15 second descent back down to earth," said Schwendinger.

On July 7, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz symbolically "flipped the switch" to begin the Jump's illumination.

"Brooklyn's Eiffel Tower" will be illuminated 365 days a year, with light performances beginning each dusk and ending at midnight, except during the fall and winter and season when lights are programmed to turn off at 11:00 p.m.