US News

Coney dive a ringing success

A piece of Coney Island history that’s been lost for nearly a century was recovered from the Atlantic yesterday.

A 500-pound bell, which stood on a pier leading to Dreamland Park before falling into the ocean during a 1911 fire, was brought to the surface by divers using inflatable lift bags.

Then it was towed to the Gateway Marina on Flatbush Avenue.

“It still sounds good,” said diver Gene Ritter, who rang it with a hammer. He was the one who first spotted it under water in November.

The bell’s inscription, “James Gregory, NY, 1885,” referring to a founding member of a 19th-century circus, was still visible.

It will be renovated by the Coney Island History Project until a permanent home can be found somewhere nearby.

“My goal was to preserve history,” Ritter said.