The first roller coaster in America only went 6 miles per hour
The Coney Island coaster first opened on this day, June 16, in 1884.
Roller coasters can be pretty terrifying—riders can experience the force of more than 5Gs, fall from 45 stories high, or break speeds of 100 miles per hour. But roller coasters were probably even scarier when they first opened in the 1800s.
On this day in 1884, just in time for the Victorian-era summer vacations, the first-ever roller coaster opened in America at Coney Island in Brooklyn. It went approximately six miles per hour, and was created by LaMarcus Thompson, according to The History Channel.
The coaster went six miles per hour for 600 feet.The History Channel
The thrill ride was an instant sensation. By the turn of the century there were hundreds of roller coasters around the country. Though some had been built in France and Britain years before the Coney Island coaster, Thompson’s creation, the“switchback railway,’’ was the first one specifically build for an amusement park, where the public paid to ride a cart down the wooden track.
In 1906, amusement-park-turned-MBTA-station Wonderland opened in Revere Beach, Massachusetts, with their own roller coasters.
July 8 1968: People enjoy the summer day at Revere Beach. The Cyclone, built in 1925 by Harry Travers for $125,000, can be seen in the background. Its cars traveled at a speed of 50 miles per hour and its climb reached a 100 feet. Leo Hurley, whose father and uncle started the amusement era on Revere Beach in 1898 and who ran the last rides before the amusement park closed in 1978, said Revere Beach was “the Coney Island of Massachusetts, the playground of New England.”
Though roller coasters and amusement parks experienced a decline during the Great Depression and World War II, 1955 marked the opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and thus the rebirth of the roller coaster.
By the mid-1960s, the major amusement parks at Coney Island had shut down, but the area remains a tourist destination. So you can’t take a road trip to ride the first roller coaster ever, but that’s probably a good thing, anyway.
25 New England beaches to visit this summer
[bdc-gallery id=”115500″]
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com