Tidbits Rides the Roller Coaster

You may be surprised to learn that various versions of the roller coaster have been thrilling humans for centuries. In the early 1400s the Russians created large ice slides and sent riders speeding down a slope on mats, boards and various types of toboggans. The French built waxed wooden slopes that people rolled down riding on wheeled wooden sleds. While each coaster had a different design and method, they all had the same purpose -- give folks a thrilling ride!

• In 1827 in Pennsylvania the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway was constructed to carry carloads of coal from the mine on the mountain nine miles downhill to the river landing. The coal company made a second income letting people ride down the hill in the evenings after the coal operations closed for the day. People loved the speedy downhill ride with its sharp turns, dips and mountain scenery. When a shorter shipping route was made for coal, the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway carried passengers only and operated for over a century until the Depression closed it down.

BIG DADDY

• What is considered to be the first “real” roller coaster was the Switch Back Railway built at Coney Island in 1884. The popular ride was designed by La Marcus Thompson, who is considered to be the father of the modern roller coaster. The ride he designed was 600 feet long, traveled approximately six mph, and cost five cents to ride. It was an instant success, with people standing in line for hours for the novel experience. Thompson recouped his $1,600 investment in just three weeks.

The Switch Back Railway on Coney Island cost a nickel to ride, and thrilled passengers at max speeds of 6 mph.

• Thompson went on to design a series of what he dubbed Scenic Railways. Ornately carved train cars traveled first on outdoor sections in a few gentle, fun dips and curves. Then the train entered a large building where passengers viewed various paintings, dioramas, special effects and stunts. All were creatively illuminated by electric lighting, which itself was a novelty at the time. Thompson's Scenic Railways were so popular that he began installing them across the world, each one better than the last.

WORLD’S OLDEST

• The Leap-the-Dips roller coaster was constructed in 1902 at Lakemont Park in Pennsylvania. With a maximum height of 48 feet and a top speed of 10 mph it wasn’t much of a thrill ride by today’s standards, but in 1902 it was brand new and a really big deal. It also goes down in the record books as the oldest freestanding roller coaster in the world. It closed down in 1985 but was rescued from demolition and fully restored. In 1996 it was officially named as a National Landmark and it reopened for business in 1999.

Aerial view of Leap-the-Dips, the world's oldest freestanding roller coaster, in Lakemont Park, Pennsylvania; built in 1902.

THE COASTER BOOM

• Roller coasters really got a boost when popu-lation centers across the U.S. began to sprawl. Early in the 1900s, transit companies began expanding their streetcar and trolley routes to reach more outlying locations. However, these outlying routes often got very few riders on evenings, weekends, and holidays, so transportation companies needed to find ways to increase the number of paying passengers during these down periods.

• The solution was to build parks at the end of the tracks, drawing city dwellers out to relatively rural areas for picnics, boating, swimming, carnival games, and rides. Of course, roller coasters were the most thrilling ride of all and were always one of the main attractions. Their popularity spread across the U.S. as these ‘trolley parks’ popped up in the outskirt locations of more and more cities. By 1919 there were around 1,500 roller coasters in North America, more than twice as many as exist here today.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

John Miller, "the Edison of roller coasters," surveys a construction project in the early 1900's.

• A revolution in the roller coaster industry was created by an inventor named John Miller, who became known as “the Edison of roller coasters” after having over 100 roller coaster-related patents registered in his name. Many of these inventions are still used on today’s modern coasters. In 1912 he patented the “Miller Under Friction Wheel.” Commonly known as the “upstop wheel,” this invention literally locks cars to the tracks, making sharp curves, high speed, and steep drops possible. The rails are shaped like an upside-down “L” and the wheels fit underneath the lip. The passengers might be lifted out of their seats but the wheels can never leave the rails. This led to the next great innovation in roller coasters: the locking lap safety bar, also invented by Miller. Some of the coasters John Miller designed still exist today, including three at Pittsburgh’s Kennywood Park.

An early diagram of Miller's "Miller Under Friction Wheel."

• The second golden age of roller coasters arrived in the early 1970s, sparked by the 1972 opening of the Racer at King’s Island near Cincinnati. This coaster attracted enormous attention and resulted in a roller coaster building boom. New designs allowed heart-stopping features such as loop-the-loops, corkscrews, coasters that are ridden while standing up, and suspended coasters that swing from overhead rails allowing the rider’s legs to dangle in the air.

"Lethal Weapon - The Ride" was the first Suspended Looping Coaster located at the Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Australia; it debuted in December, 1995.

A DIP AND A RISE

• By 1928 the age of roller coasters had reached its peak, with 40 new coasters built that year alone. Then came the stock market crash, the Depression, and a war. Roller coasters and amusement parks foundered, and many closed. It wasn’t until the late 1940s after WWII that the public began trickling back to amusement parks. The opening of Disneyland in California in 1955 spurred new interest in theme parks which had begun to pop up across the country.

• In 1982, the Racer underwent a metamorphosis when trains on one of the two tracks were turned around, so riders can travel facing backwards.

• Today there are about 579 coasters in the U.S.; California has the most, with 72.

• As technology marches forward, roller coasters get bigger, faster, and steeper.

NEW HEIGHTS

• When developers at Buffalo Bill’s Casino south of Las Vegas wanted to build a roller coaster at their resort with a record-setting 225-foot drop, they ran up against city ordinances that prohibited roller coasters from standing taller than 209 feet. They solved the dilemma by tunneling below ground so that the coaster, called the Desperado, dropped the full 225 feet without breaking any laws. Riders enjoyed the death-defying drop until the coaster closed in 2020 due to the Covid-19 shutdown.

• The braking system, done with magnetic fields generated by 473 magnets, means there’s no friction to wear parts out. It’s silent (except for the screams), efficient, and fail-safe.

• In 2005, Kingda Ka opened for business, claiming the title of both the fastest and the tallest roller coaster in North America. The coaster cars rocket to the top of a 456-foot tower, accelerating from 0 to 128 mph within 3.5 seconds, before a stomach-clenching cork-screw drop back down to earth. A second 13-story hill gives riders a few moments of weightlessness before the ride is over, less than 60 seconds after it began. The highest point of the ride is a towering 45 stories tall.

North America's tallest and fastest roller coaster, Kingda Ka, at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey.

• The Kingda Ka roller coaster has four cars, with each car seating 18 passengers. Over 1,000 people per hour take the ride.