6. Natural Disaster Reenactments

Photo from Library of Congress

Coney Island also showed simulations of real tragic disasters for audiences to watch. One popular reenactment was the 1902 Galveston Flood in a large building on Surf Avenue and 17th street. Workers used real and fake water, large amounts of cotton, and lighting and mechanical effects to simulate the real flood, which killed about 6,000 people in 1900. Other natural disaster reenactments were those of the San Francisco Earthquake, the Johnstown Flood, and the eruption of Mount Pelee.