Once the Great Depression hit the United States in the 1930s, the dark age of roller coaster history began. A shortage of expendable income meant that hundreds of coasters were torn down and very few were built. By the mid-century mark, only Philadelphia Toboggan and National Amusement Devices were building coasters. Major parks were turned to rubble (Riverview, 1967; Coney Island near Cincinnati, 1970; and Palisades, 1972), while others were abandoned as ghost towns. At this same time, the roller coaster was being reborn, thanks to a wealthy and imaginative animator.

Walt Disney opened the doors to Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., in July 1955 and instantly revitalized the notion of amusement parks. Disney commissioned the Arrow Development Company (now Arrow Dynamics), led by Ed Morgan and Karl Bacon, to design the bobsled-style Matterhorn (1959), the first steel coaster. Tubular steel rails and nylon wheels expanded the possibilities of coaster design while making the rides themselves dramatically smoother.

The success of Disneyland encouraged entrepreneurs to open regionally themed parks of their own--the Six Flags chain, Kings Island near Cincinnati, and Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Fla., were some of the first. In the 1960s Arrow, now including coaster designer Ron Toomer, introduced the first flume ride (a water ride) and the company's runaway mine ride, a breakneck tour of a scary landscape, which took off in 1966 at Six Flags Over Texas.

Arrow's helix-shaped corkscrew coaster, which opened at Knott's Berry Farm (Buena Park, Calif.) in 1975, added 360-degree rolls to the coaster design canon--the first inversion of the modern era. The following year, the Great American Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia, Calif.) heralded a new age for looping coasters, with the first successful vertical loop. Now known simply as Revolution, it lives up to its name for its innovative clothoid, or teardrop-shaped, loop designed by Anton Schwarzkopf of Germany for the Swiss builder Intamin AG. This broadened the vocabulary of coaster design and spoke to coaster fans, who began to return to the parks in droves. No major park can presently do without a looping coaster, characterized by the eight inversions of today's looping champs, Dragon Kahn in Spain and Monte Makaya in Brazil.

The advent of steel coasters did not displace the beloved wooden coasters, or "woodies," which were also instrumental in the roller coaster rebirth. Nostalgia was part of the attraction to new wooden "megacoasters," such as Racer (1972), a classic John Allen design, featuring dual coasters, and The Beast (1979), the longest in the world--both at Kings Island. Nostalgia also fueled the formation of the American Coaster Enthusiasts in 1978, a fan club that supports the conservation of old coasters, maintaining an international list of about two dozen "Coaster Classics."

Meanwhile, steel coasters were not standing still, in fact they were banking and rolling in the newfound success of amusement parks. New dimensions were added to the thrill with suspended coasters like XLR-8 (1984) at AstroWorld in Houston, Texas, stand-up rides like the King Cobra (1984) at Kings Island, and inverted coasters like Bolliger and Mabillard's Batman The Ride (1992) at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Ill. Making its debut in 1982, the Boomerang ride by the Dutch firm Vekoma, designed to run both forward and backward, became the world's most installed coaster.

Indeed, it's a long ride from the Russian Mountains to the 60-degree, 205-foot drop of Cedar Point's Magnum XL-200. But even after a century since the opening of the Flip-Flap, the battle for the fastest, biggest, craziest coaster rages on. Contenders for this year's hot ticket include the 70-mile-per-hour Batman and Robin: The Chiller at Six Flags Great Adventure (Jackson, N.J.), and the three-minute-long, stand-up Riddler's Revenge at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Keep your arms inside the car and hold tight.

Related Links | Credits | Comments

Copyright © 1998-1999 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.