Blackpool Pleasure Beach by Mack Rides in Germany. Icon is the first coaster in the UK to feature a double launch and is the largest ever single investment at the park costing £16.25 million. Pleasure Beach was founded in 1896 by Alderman William George Bean after he failed in his attempt to become an advertising man on New York's Madison Avenue. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1897 and opened two separate amusement parks; one adjacent to Euston Road in Great Yarmouth and another in Blackpool, opposite the tram terminus. The Great Yarmouth amusement park failed to generate much interest and so
Pleasure Beach Bridge timbers creaking and shifting under the weight of passing cars. Prior to the bridge's construction, Pleasure Island was accessible only by ferry. In 1907, the Pleasure Beach Ferry Company was given the rights to build a movable toll bridge. A series of trestles were built across the tidal flats with a swing span across the dredged channel. The swing span was constructed in 1927, but in the Great Depression the Beach Ferry Company transferred control of the bridge to the city of Bridgeport. The tolls were removed and the bridge continued to be used after Pleasure Beach's closing in 1968,