SeaGlass Carousel, Featuring Color-Changing Fish, Set To Open In Battery Park Thursday

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There's a new attraction in Battery Park -- the SeaGlass Carousel.

The carousel, which opens to the public Thursday, features 13-foot-tall fish that change colors, go up and down and spin around, all to the accompaniment of classical music, 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reported.

Eight-year-old Simone was one of the first to ride the carousel at a preview event Wednesday.

"It looks like a yellow and a green and a pink and an orange a bit and a purple," she said of her fish's colors.

Simone's mother said her kids have been on many carousels before. "But the color in here is great. It's terrific," she said.

Warrie Price, president of The Battery Conservancy, said the carousel is an homage to the original New York Aquarium, built in Battery Park in 1896.

"The magic of the undersea is still as viable 119 years later," she said.

Carousel co-creator Mark Yoes took inspiration for the outer structure from a seashell.

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"What that allowed us to do is to develop a building that shows the rotation and energy of the show inside on the outside," he explained.

As CBS2's Vanessa Murdock reported, the carousel has been re-imagined for the 21st century and the Conservancy hopes that riders will be transported into an underwater fantasy land.

With lighting, music, and choreography that changes with each ride the experience is like a show.

"There's no limit. That's modern technology. That's the beauty of it," George Tsypin said.

The ride costs $5 and is open at night.