22 Interesting Facts About Roller Coasters

Aroller coaster, is a type of amusement ride that uses an elevated railroad track with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride in open cars along the track, and the rides can be found in amusement parks and theme parks all over the globe. It is a type of elevated railway with steep inclines and descents that transports a train of passengers through sharp curves and sudden changes in speed and direction for a thrilling ride that leaves the rider feeling ecstatic. So lets ride and read these amazing facts about roller coasters.

1. In the 1600s, the Russians created the first gravity rides. They constructed high wooden ramps in the winter and covered them with water, which quickly turned to ice. The ramps were about two feet (.6 meter) wide, which was just wide enough for a small sled.
2. In the early 1800s, a French builder brought the “Russian mountains” to Paris, France’s capital. However, Russia was much colder than France, where the ice melted in the warmer, rainy winters. As a result, the French drove their sleds over wooden rollers. This is where the term “roller coaster” Originated from.
3. LaMarcus Thompson, an American inventor, was responsible for revolutionizing the amusement industry in the United States, earning him the moniker “Father of the American Roller Coaster.” Thompson, who was born in Jersey, Ohio, in 1848, was natural at mechanics, designing and building a butter churn and an ox cart when he was 12 years old.
4. In 1884, LaMarcus A. Thompson designed a new coaster for Coney Island, a New York amusement park in 1884. The Switchback Gravity Pleasure Railway by Thompson was a tremendous hit. In North America and Europe, Thompson developed 44 additional of these coasters.
5. An old mining railway became the first gravity ride in the United States in the 1870s. In Pennsylvania, this was the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway. The cars were hauled up a mountain by a steam engine. The cars then coasted down at a speed of six miles (10 kilometers). The Mauch Chunk Railway charged five cents per ride.
6. Roller coasters were all the rage in the 1920s. Designers were making them taller, longer, and faster. Some lift hills climbed as high as 100 feet (30 meters). The Coney Island Cyclone, built-in 1927, rose 85 feet (26 meters) and ran at 55 miles (89 kilometers) per hour over eight steep hills.
7. Built-in 1927, the Cyclone is still a popular ride today. With seven “clones” around the United States, Europe, and Japan, it is one of the most imitated roller coasters in the world. This Was the golden age for the roller coaster.
8. In 1955, Walt Disney reversed this trend. He built a new amusement park in Anaheim, California. This was the first theme park, Disneyland.
9. This Golden Age of Roller Coasters came to an end with the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II (1939–1945). Amusement parks were seeing fewer visitors. There was a scarcity of funds and supplies to construct additional rides. Rather than building new coasters, workers demolished hundreds of existing ones.
10. Walt Disney turned this tendency around in 1955. In Anaheim, California, he constructed a new amusement park. Disneyland was the world’s first theme park.
11. The Matterhorn debuted at Disneyland in 1959. This was a miniature steel-and-concrete mountain with a steel roller coaster that turned and twisted down its sides. The cars—four passenger bobsleds—splashed through a pool of water at the end of the ride. It quickly became one of Disneyland’s most popular rides.
12. The Leap-the-Dips roller coaster was built in 1902 in Lakemont Park near Altoona, Pennsylvania, and is the world’s oldest roller coaster. Edward Joy Morris designed Leap-the-Dips, which was built by the Federal Construction Company.
13. The Formula Rossa of Ferrari World, Abu Dhabi, can reach speeds of up to 240 km/h (149.1 mph) and travel 52 meters in 4.9 seconds, earning it the Guinness World Record for the fastest roller coaster till now.
14. Kingda Ka is the world’s tallest and, as well as fastest roller coaster in North America. It is also one of the fastest roller coasters globally, reaching a top speed of 206 kilometers per hour. This upside-down U-shaped roller coaster soars 45 stories (456 feet) into the sky!
15. The current record for the longest coaster is Steel Dragon 2000 at Japan’s Nagashima Spa Land, which travels over one and a half miles (2,479 meters) and is designed by D. H. Morgan Manufacturing.
16. If you’re looking for palm-sweating thrills, wooden coasters have one advantage over steel coasters: they sway a lot more. More looping, higher and steeper hills, greater drops and rolls, and faster speeds are all possible with tubular steel coasters.
17. The Takabisha roller coaster at Japan’s Fuji-Q Highland theme park is the world’s steepest wooden roller coaster.
18. El Toro, located at Six Flags Great Adventure (Jackson Township, New Jersey), is the world’s fastest wooden roller coaster. At 70 mph, it is silky and smooth.
19. Expedition Everest is the most expensive roller coaster on the globe. It cost Disney a whopping US$100,000,000 to build it.
20. Takabisha, Fuji-Q Highland, Japan, is the scariest roller coaster in the world. It has a falling angle of 121 degrees which is unique and has a world record making people feel as if they will fall out of their seats.
21. The legendary Beast, which opened in 1979 and is still the world’s longest wooden roller coaster at 7,359 feet, is the highlight of Kings Island’s wooden roller coaster lineup.
22. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is the most intense roller coaster of the Walt Disney World and the only one that goes upside down.