National Roller Coaster Day

Amusement park fans know that roller coasters provide the highest “wow” factor. August 16th is National Roller Coaster Day, a wonderful time to take a ride on a coaster and get that thrill a minute just like when you were a kid! Adults can relive a child’s anticipation of a slow, rickety climb way, way up the roller coaster tracks and that stomach-dropping fall way, way, way down to the bottom.

In this age of high tech sophistication, roller coasters can still make us giddy over a ride that was popular as far back as the 1920’s.

Here’s a bit of history about the looping ride. The first roller coasters began appearing in Russia during the 1500’s. The contraptions, called “Russian Mountains,” were made of wood with ice ramps on which people would slide down, often hurting themselves. These early roller coaster designs were such a hit that wheels are added to the carts in the 1700’s so people could continue to ride during the summer months in addition to the winter.

The early 1900’s were considered a “Golden Age of Roller Coasters,” as the fast-rollin’ rides increase in popularity, in part thanks to innovations such as the world’s first looping coaster. One of the most well-known from the period is the historical Cyclone that opened at Coney Island in 1927. The onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, significantly impacted the amusement park industry and brought an end to the rapid growth experienced during the Golden Age of coasters.

In 1959, Disneyland introduced a design breakthrough with their Matterhorn Bobsleds, the first permanent roller coaster to use a tubular steel track. Designed by Arrow Development, the tubular track was unlike standard rail design on wooden coasters, allowing the track to bend in sharper angles in any direction, leading to the incorporation of loops, corkscrews, and inversion elements within track layouts. Just over a decade later, the success of The Racer coaster at Kings Island in 1972 sparked a new era of roller coaster enthusiasm, leading to the rebirth of interest in amusement parks and the roller coasters that live within them.