Coney Island’s boardwalk shows up in Italy

A 300-foot-long section of the boardwalk has appeared at the World’s Fair in Milan

A rendering of the USA Pavilion at the World’s Fair in Milan and the Coney Island boardwalk
A rendering of the USA Pavilion at the World’s Fair in Milan and the Coney Island boardwalk

Coney Island’s boardwalk is showing up in some unusual places. Even as locals fight the replacement of the boardwalk with concrete and plastic planking, the city is shipping off a 300-foot-long section to Italy.

Coney Island’s boardwalk is now installed at the World’s Fair in Milan at the expo’s $60 million USA Pavilion, according to the New York Post.

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But the section is just some of the wood the city has now sold off. Much more of the boardwalk was sold to a Brooklyn-based lumber-refurbishing company, Sawkill Lumber. Lumber company has helped repurpose the wood for “fancy pizza joints and on benches along High Line Park.”

“It’s pretty outrageous,” Rob Burstein, president of the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance, told the Post of the boardwalk’s trip to Italy. “That wood was terrific wood — but they’re replacing it with plastic composite and concrete.” [NYP]Christopher Cameron