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It reopened to the public last June 28 for the first time in nearly two decades in 2014.
Pleasure Beach – a 71-acre barrier island off Long Island Sound – will be accessible via free water taxi, which will pick up beachgoers at the fishing pier on Seaview Avenue near Central Avenue, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
“Last year, when Pleasure Beach reopened, thousands of people discovered the beautiful white sands right here in Bridgeport. With the beginning of the summer season this weekend, I invite kids and families in Bridgeport and across the region to come enjoy Pleasure Beach. It’s a little piece of Nantucket right here in Bridgeport, Conn.,” said Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch.
“We’re excited that summer is coming,” said Bridgeport Parks Director Charles Carroll. “Many of the Bridgeport parks, including Pleasure Beach, have seen improvements. We have much to show the public when it comes to parks in the Park City.”
Along with the reopening of the park, the city will be debuting a 24 panel historic walking tour of the island.
Pleasure Beach has a storied history from serving as home to an amusement park built by Coney Island famed George C. Tilyou, to housing a baseball field owned by Hall of Famer James O’Rourke, to being visited by former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, to holding concerts for famous musicians such as Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra.
The historic tour is self-guided with beautiful plaques that chronologically showcase the peninsula's history.
Bridgeport took ownership of Pleasure Beach in 1892. It served as home to a nationally acclaimed amusement park and ballroom for the first half of the 20th century. But fires and declining visitor numbers put the amusement park out of business in 1966.
The barrier island continued to go from periods of revival and decay until Father’s Day of 1996, when the bridge to Pleasure Beach burned. The bridge was deemed unusable after the fire, and Pleasure Beach remained inaccessible.
But last year, Finch restored access to the barrier island after nearly two decades of neglect.
Currently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is executing a $2 million investment to repair breakwaters off the Pleasure Beach shoreline.
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