- William A. Engeman's Brighton Beach Bathing Pavilion featured an arched "bathing bridge" that extended out over the sand to the ocean's edge. At the end of the bridge he installed an electric light that permitted night bathing. The sport of "electric bathing" became very popular with those ever eager to try new things.
- Eben Moody Boynton established an early monorail system which ran during the summer of 1878 from Locust Grove (a small community in Gravesend that no longer exists) through Gravesend to Brighton Beach. Bankruptcy forced its closure that same summer.
- The sea began to encroach upon the beach early in Brighton's history, threatening the hotels and other amusements. Beginning on April 3, 1888, engineers began moving the 6,000-ton Brighton Beach Hotel, located at Brighton 5th Street and Coney Island Avenue, back 600 feet inland from the sea. Six train engines were needed along with 24 iron rails. One hundred and twenty-five iron flat cars were placed under the hotel. The move was completed on June 29, 1888, at a cost of $80,000.
View an image of this event in the Photo Gallery.
- On September 1, 1889, Susan B. Anthony, veteran women's rights advocate, lunched at the Brighton Beach Hotel, summer home of the Seidl Society. As a guest of the society she lectured on themes important to the time: women's subordination to and financial dependency on men, and women's disenfranchisement.
- Brighton Beach, always attractive to unique and creative types, is a magnet for the movies. Among the films made in Brighton are Back to the Beach with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello; Frankie & Johnny with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer; The Pickle with Danny Aiello, Shelley Winters and Dyan Cannon; Little Odessa with Tim Roth, Maximilian Schell and Vanessa Redgrave; and, of course, Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, starring Jonathan Silverman, Blythe Danner and Bob Dishy.
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