Thompson, La Marcus, in full LA MARCUS ADNA THOMPSON (b. March 8, 1848, Jersey, Ohio, U.S.--d. May 8, 1919, Glen Cove, N.Y.), American inventor and businessman, who was known as the "Father of the Gravity Ride" for his Switchback Railway at Coney Island, in New York City, the first gravity-powered roller coaster built in the United States.

A natural at mechanics, Thompson at age 12 designed and built a butter churn and an oxcart, and by age 17 he was a master carpenter. After completing his education at Hillsdale College in Michigan in 1866, he worked briefly in the wagon and carriage business before making a mint as a manufacturer of women's seamless hosiery.

A near nervous breakdown in the early 1880s led to Thompson selling his stake in the hosiery company, so he returned to his first passion of inventing. Inspired by a ride years earlier on the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway in Pennsylvania and by designs by other inventors, Thompson built his own highly successful Switchback at Coney Island in 1884. Within four years, he had built about 50 more across the nation and in Europe.

After more advanced coasters siphoned away his business, Thompson began work, along with designer James A. Griffiths, on his most famous attraction--the Scenic Railway. Opened in 1887 on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, N.J., it was a rolling tour through elaborate artificial scenery--vividly colored tableaus, biblical scenes, and flora--illuminated by lights triggered by the approaching cars. This would be the precursor to Space Mountain of Disneyland, in Anaheim, Calif., and other theme park journeys.

Until 1915, Thompson built numerous scenic railways--including his 1910 masterpiece of faux-mountain and Egyptian imagery in Venice, Calif.--eventually facing competition from his old partner Griffiths. Even after retirement, he patented an automatic car coupler and sold the invention to railroad car manufacturer, George Pullman. After Thompson's death in 1919, his legacy lived on through Thompson Company coasters, notably the Bobs (later Tornado), built at Coney Island in 1926.

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