Birth Of The Roller Coaster

My guess is that this was a novel concept back in 1884, when the first roller coaster opened at Coney Island in Brooklyn.

Costing a nickel to ride, the first “switchback railway” (as it was called) traveled a whopping 6 mph! An instant hit with the public, there were soon hundreds of other roller coasters across the country.

Needless to say, the cost to ride—and the SPEED have both gone up considerably.

I LOVE ROLLER COASTERS!!!!

Despite a healthy fear of heights, I am somehow not phased by the death-defying drops and turns of today’s coasters. I have ridden the biggest and baddest that Busch Gardens and other amusement parks like Cedar Point have to offer—and I can go on repeatedly without stopping.

I’ve found there is a big difference between the motion of roller coasters and , say, the Spinning Teacups, which I cannot abide. The spinning will make me toss my cookies every time. The kids seem immune to the spinning rides—and I think I was that way early in my “riding career”, but no longer. I can get sick watching OTHER people spin around that violently!

Check out the video below-a roller coaster called, appropriately, “SCREAM” Notice the stats on length, turns and speed!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPu9JytZCSw

Whoa! Can we go AGAIN!!!!??????