Even before the Cyclone and the New York Aquarium, Coney Island was as a major resort attraction, filled with hotels, bathhouses, and entertainment sights. In 1921, Brooklyn Borough President Edward Riegelmann helped allocate $3 million for beach improvement and boardwalk construction along the shore, parallel to the hotels. Two years later, the project was complete and Coney Island was transformed once and for all.

The boardwalk contained 7,700 cubic yards of reinforced concrete, 120,000 tons of stone, and 3.6 million feet of wood for flooring. The construction formed an 80-foot wide and 14-foot tall boardwalk, officially named after Riegelmann, which stretched from West 37 Street to Ocean Parkway.

In 1926, an additional mile of the boardwalk was extended to Brighton Beach; but in 1932, a fire started under the boardwalk, destroying about 1,000 feet of it, along with other buildings, and causing over $1 million worth of damage.

For decades to come, “under the boardwalk” would serve as a love nest for teenagers, a cover for lawbreakers, a campsite for the homeless, and a darkened respite from the summer heat. It remained a place of mystery and escapades until the Army Corps of Engineers filled the gaps with sand, leaving “under the boardwalk” to exist only in the classic song.

In 1938, The New York City Parks Department, led by Commissioner Robert Moses, took over jurisdiction of the area, and invested another $3 million into expanding the beach and the boardwalk. Parts of the boardwalk were reconstructed and it was extended even further, along Brighton Beach to Corbin Place. The entire boardwalk was composed of about 1.3 million wooden boards and more than 15 million screws.

Over the course of the next seven decades, portions of the boardwalk have been reconstructed several times. The Parks Department says that oceanfront environments, heavy foot traffic, and consistent vehicle travel wears on the boardwalk, requiring an excessive amount of costly maintenance. In the past, sections of the 2.7-mile boardwalk were built from Bethabara, Cumaru, and Ekki timber, among other treated wood.

In efforts to find a more durable and cost-efficient solution to the constant maintenance, the Parks Department is now reconstructing it using concrete decking. Parts of the historic boardwalk have already been rebuilt, while others are awaiting their renovation. The Parks Department reports that this modification will “spare approximately 390 square miles of the rainforest every 20 years,” and will save the city “time and money in the long run.”

Critics counter that exchanging wood for concrete will destroy the character of the icon, and, as evidenced by a trial patch already installed, will require its own maintenance and repairs. They stress that domestic wood could be used instead of rainforest wood, and that if the Parks Department didn’t run its own vehicles across it, that would go a long way toward preserving it longer.