Golden City Amusement Park was opened on May 30th, 1907 by William T. Warner. Warner's Canarsie Amusement Company looked to compete with the ubiquitous theme parks of Coney Island by building a park in an area that was technically closer to Manhattan: newly erected elevated train and trolley lines made access to the park easy for city-dwellers. Warner leased an area of almost 10 acres for 20 years, and he was optimistic that the park's growth would soar, enabling him to rent the additional surrounding 25 acres of unused space.

The park's entrance led directly to a bay-facing promenade. It was marked by a grand archway capped by a statue of Ben-Hur on his chariot. Like most amusement parks of the time, the Golden City Amusement Park was constructed in a variety of architectural styles meant to invoke feelings of far-away and exotic destinations. These buildings were illuminated at night by over one-hundred thousand lights. The park's two piers, one of which is known as Canarsie Pier, were outfitted with skating rinks and dance halls. The crown jewel of the park at its opening was the 2,500 seat Golden City Theater, which hosted productions such as Robinson Crusoe, their most popular show. Like most theme parks of the era, Golden City hosted a variety of entertainments and spectacles, including King Pharoah (a horse with the intelligence of a man), a circus, Forest Fire (a live enactment of a forest fire-fight), and rides called the Double Whirl, Giant Circle Swing, Coliseum Coaster, Down the Niagra, Over the Rockies, Temple of Wonders, and Human Laundry (a large-scale laundry machine where riders were washed, spun dry, and ejected through a laundry chute by vertical rollers). Much to Warner's delight, opening day was a great success and the park welcomed 25,000 guests.

Following this initial success, Warner began planning for expansion in 1909. However, a fire that started in one of the theme park's restaurants put the plans on hold. Though half the park was destroyed, it remained open, mostly owing to the fact that the rollercoaster had been salvaged. By the 1910s, a beer hall and boxing arena opened across the street from Golden City, contributing a slightly rowdier atmosphere particularly on the pier. However, a second fire, this time started in a nearby rowhouse, savaged the park in 1934. It quickly became clear that it would never recover its former glory after the second conflagration. Enemy number one of all amusement parks, Park's Commissioner Robert Moses, officially condemned the Golden City Amusement Park in 1939.