History of the roller coaster

Roller coaster amusement rides have origins which date back to ice slides constructed in 18th-century Russia. Early technology featured sleds or wheeled carts that were sent down hills of ice reinforced by wooden supports. The technology evolved in the 19th century to feature railroad track using wheeled cars that were securely locked to the track. Newer innovations emerged in the early 20th century with side friction and underfriction wheel technologies to allow for greater speeds and sharper turns. By the mid-to-late 20th century, these elements intensified with the introduction of steel roller coaster designs and the ability to invert riders.
The world's oldest roller coasters descended from the "Russian mountains", which were hills of ice built in the 17th century for the purpose of sliding, located in the gardens of palaces around the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg. Other languages also reference Russian mountains when referring to roller coasters, such as the Spanish montaña rusa, the Italian montagne russe, and the French montagnes russes. The Russian term for roller coaster, американские горки (amerikanskie gorki), translates literally as "American mountains".
The recreational attractions were called katalnaya gorka (Катальная Горка) or "sliding mountain" in Russian. Most were built with a height of 70 to 80 feet (21 to 24 m), a 50-degree drop, and were reinforced by wooden supports on either side. The slides became popular with the Russian upper class. Catherine the Great of Russia constructed a summer version of the ride at her estate in 1784, which relied on wheeled carts that rode along grooved tracks instead of sleds.
Russian soldiers occupying Paris from 1815 to 1816, after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, may have introduced the Russian amusement of sledding down steep hills to the French. In July 1817, a French banker named Nicolas Beaujon opened Parc Beaujon, an amusement park on the Champs-Élysées. Its most famous attraction was the Promenades Aériennes or "Aerial Strolls". It featured wheeled cars securely locked to the track, guide rails to keep them on course, and higher speeds. The three-wheel carts were towed to the top of a tower, and released to descend two curving tracks on either side. King Louis XVIII of France came to see the park, but it is not recorded if he tried the ride. Before long, there were seven similar rides in Paris: Les Montagnes Françaises (The French Mountains), Le Delta, Les Montagnes de Belleville (The Mountains of Belleville), Les Montagnes Américaines (The American Mountains), Les Montages Lilliputiennes, (The Miniature Mountains), Les Montagnes Suisses (The Swiss Mountains), and Les Montagnes Égyptiennes (The Egyptian Mountains).
In the beginning, these attractions were primarily for the upper classes. In 1845, an amusement park called Tivoli Gardens opened in Copenhagen, which was meant for the middle class. These new parks featured roller coasters as permanent attractions. The first permanent coaster with a looping track was most likely also built in Paris from an English design in 1846, with a single-person wheeled sled running through a 13-foot (4 m) diameter vertical loop. These early single loop designs were called centrifugal railways. In 1887, a French entrepreneur, Joseph Oller, the owner of the Moulin Rouge music hall, built Les Montagnes Russes à Belleville (The Russian Mountains of Belleville) a permanent roller coaster with a length of 200 meters in the form of a double-eight, later enlarged to four figure-eight-shaped loops.
In the 1850s, a mining company in Summit Hill, Pennsylvania, constructed the Mauch Chunk gravity railroad, a brakeman-controlled, 8.7-mile (14 km) downhill track used to deliver coal to Mauch Chunk (now known as Jim Thorpe), Pennsylvania. By 1872, the "Gravity Road", as it became known, was selling rides to thrill seekers. Railway companies used similar tracks to provide amusement on days when ridership was low.
Using this idea as a basis, LaMarcus Adna Thompson began work on a gravity Switchback Railway that opened at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York in 1884. Passengers climbed to the top of a platform and rode a bench-like car down the 600 ft (180 m) track up to the top of another tower where the vehicle was switched to a return track and the passengers took the return trip. This track design was soon replaced with an oval complete circuit. In 1885, Phillip Hinkle introduced the first complete-circuit coaster with a lift hill, Gravity Pleasure Road, which became the most popular attraction at Coney Island. Not to be outdone, Thompson patented his design for a roller coaster that included dark tunnels with painted scenery in 1886. "Scenic Railways" were soon found in amusement parks across the county, with Frederick Ingersoll's construction company building many of them in the first two decades of the 20th century.
As roller coasters grew in popularity, experimentation in coaster dynamics took off. In the 1880s, the concept of a vertical loop was again explored by Lina Beecher, and in 1895 the concept came into fruition with Flip Flap Railway, located at Sea Lion Park in Brooklyn, and shortly afterward with Loop the Loop at Olentangy Park near Columbus, Ohio, as well as similar coasters in Atlantic City and Coney Island. The rides exerted dangerously high G-forces, and many passengers suffered whiplash. Both were soon dismantled, and looping coasters would disappear for half a century.
The oldest operating roller coaster, which originated during this time period, is Leap-The-Dips at Lakemont Park in Pennsylvania, a side friction roller coaster built in 1902. The oldest wooden roller coaster in the United Kingdom is the Scenic Railway at Dreamland Margate in Margate, Kent, and it features a system where the brakeman rides the car with wheels. It was severely damaged by fire on April 7, 2008, but was subsequently restored and reopened to the public in 2015. Scenic Railway at Melbourne's Luna Park built in 1912, is the world's second-oldest roller coaster, and it also features a system where the brakeman rides the car with wheels.
By 1919, the first underfriction roller coaster had been developed by John A. Miller. Soon, roller coasters spread to amusement parks all around the world. One of the most well-known historical roller coasters, the Coney Island Cyclone, opened at Coney Island in 1927. Like Cyclone, most early roller coasters were made of wood. Many old wooden roller coasters are still operational, at parks such as Kennywood and Blackpool Pleasure Beach. One of only 13 remaining examples of John Miller's work worldwide is Roller Coaster at Lagoon in Utah. The coaster opened in 1921 and is the 6th oldest coaster in the world.
The Great Depression marked the end of the golden age of roller coasters, as amusement parks across the United States went into a decline that resulted in less demand for new coasters, as well as the closure of many parks and rides. This general slump lasted until 1972, when The Racer opened at Kings Island. Designed by John C. Allen, the instant success of The Racer helped to ignite a renaissance for roller coasters, reviving worldwide interest throughout the industry.
In 1959, the Disneyland theme park introduced a new design breakthrough in roller coasters with Matterhorn Bobsleds. This was the first roller coaster to use a tubular steel track. Unlike conventional wooden rails, which are generally formed using steel strips mounted on laminated wood, tubular steel can be bent in any direction, which allows designers to incorporate loops, corkscrews, and many other maneuvers into their designs. Most modern roller coasters are made of steel, although wooden roller coasters are still being built, along with hybrids of steel and wood.
In 1975, the first modern-day roller coaster with an inverting element opened: Corkscrew, located at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. In 1976, the vertical loop made a comeback with Great American Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California.
The roller coasters mentioned here are significant for their role in the amusement industry. They were notable for specific reasons, including: