Pleasure Beach

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This article is about the area in Connecticut, for the Pleasure Beach in Blackpool (UK), see Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Pleasure Beach is a peninsula located off the coast of southeastern Bridgeport, Connecticut, and southwestern Stratford, Connecticut. It is surrounded by water (the Lewis Gut on the north shore, and the Long Island Sound on the south shore.)

From 1892 until the mid-20th century, it was home to a popular amusement park. It also boasts one of Connecticut's finest beaches. Currently, Pleasure Beach is the home to endangered piping plover birds, and sections of the beach are roped off seasonally to preserve their habitat.

Pleasure Beach is now accessible only by foot along the 2-mile-long shoreline, or by boat from the mainland. A wooden bridge from Bridgeport's East End to Pleasure Beach burned under mysterious circumstances in the summer of 1996. This has severely limited tourist activity to the beach.

There are several dozen cottages on the peninsula. The leasing and ownership of these homes has caused controversy for a decade. These houses, as well as various abandoned buildings, still remain on the island. Pleasure Beach is patrolled by local police, and vandals have been caught through the use of web-cam technology.