From KQED.

Try to imagine the first time you saw the lights of an amusement park twinkling in the night sky.

To me, those lights meant fun with family, fried food, and rides.

Although, to be honest, I've always had a little bit of a weak stomach for them.

Throughout the last hundred years or so, amusement parks like Marine World, Neptune's Beach, Great America, and Discovery Kingdom

have dotted the landscape here in the Bay Area.

A few are still around, but most have closed for good.

In a few years, California's Great

America in Santa Clara will become the next to close its gates. This week, we remember two

amusement parks that have etched themselves into the imaginations of generations of Bay Area

residents. Ida Park in Oakland and San Francisco's Playland at the Beach.

This episode first aired in 2022, but we're bringing it back to celebrate the end of summer.

I'm Katrina Schwartz. You're listening to Bay Curious.

Support for Bay Curious comes from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, where pure ingredients and sustainable brewing meet a legacy of craft.

Share one with a friend today and taste for yourself.

Sierra Nevada, taste what matters. Please drink responsibly.

As summer comes to a close, we're taking a look back at Bay Area

amusement parks of yesteryear. Here's reporter Christopher Beale. In 1900, Oakland was bustling

with activity. The Model T was still a few years away, so cars weren't super commonplace yet,

and the streets buzzed with bicycle and

trolley traffic. The main street car around Oakland in those days was the San Francisco,

Oakland and San Jose Railway, which later became the key system. The street car, and the land

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