An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often featuring multiple areas with different themes. Unlike temporary and mobile funfairs and carnivals, amusement parks are stationary and built for long-lasting operation. They are more elaborate than city parks and playgrounds, usually providing attractions that cater to a variety of age groups. While amusement parks often contain themed areas, theme parks place a heavier focus with more intricately-designed themes that revolve around a particular subject or group of subjects.
A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are often found in amusement parks and theme parks around the world. LaMarcus Adna Thompson obtained one of the first known patents for a roller coaster design in 1885, related to the Switchback Railway that opened a year earlier at Coney Island. The track in a coaster design does not necessarily have to be a complete circuit, as shuttle roller coasters demonstrate. Most roller coasters have multiple cars in which passengers sit and are restrained. Two or more cars hooked together are called a train. Some roller coasters, notably Wild Mouse roller coasters, run with single cars.
The generic roller coaster vertical loop, where a section of track causes the riders to complete a 360 degree turn, is the most basic of roller coaster inversions. At the top of the loop, riders are completely inverted.
A roller coaster train is a vehicle made up of two or more cars connected by specialized joints which transports passengers around a roller coaster's circuit.
The Coney Island Cyclone is a wooden roller coaster at Luna Park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. Designed by Vernon Keenan, it opened to the public on June 26, 1927. The coaster is on a plot of land at the intersection of Surf Avenue and West 10th Street. The Cyclone reaches a maximum speed of 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) and has a total track length of 2,640 feet (800 m), with a maximum height of 85 feet (26 m).
John A. Miller was an American roller coaster designer and builder, inventor, and businessman. Miller patented over 100 key roller coaster components, and is widely considered the "father of the modern high-speed roller coaster." During his lifetime, he participated in the design of approximately 150 coasters and was a key business partner and mentor to other well-known roller coaster designers, Harry C. Baker and John C. Allen.
The original Switchback Railway was the first roller coaster at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York City, and one of the earliest designed for amusement in the United States. The 1885 patent states the invention relates to the gravity double track switchback railway, which had predicated the inclined plane railway, patented in 1878 by Richard Knudsen. Coney Island's version was designed by LaMarcus Adna Thompson in 1881 and constructed in 1884. It appears Thompson based his design, at least in part, on the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway which was a coal-mining train that had started carrying passengers as a thrill ride in 1827.
Roller coaster amusement rides have origins back to ice slides constructed in 18th-century Russia. Early technology featured sleds or wheeled carts that were sent down hills of snow 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 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.
Luna Park is an amusement park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It opened on May 29, 2010, at the site of Astroland, an amusement park that had been in operation from 1962 to 2008, and Dreamland, which operated at the same site for the 2009 season. It was named after the original 1903 Luna Park which operated until 1944 on a site just north of the current park's 1000 Surf Avenue location.
The Cyclone was a wooden roller coaster that operated at Revere Beach in Revere, Massachusetts, from 1925 until 1969. When Cyclone was constructed, it was the tallest roller coaster ever built, as well as being the first roller coaster in the world to reach 100 feet (30 m) in height. In addition to being the tallest roller coaster of its day, some also claim that it was the largest and fastest roller coaster in the world, with a length of 3,600 feet (1,100 m) and top speeds between 45 and 50 mph. Cyclone held the title of world's tallest roller coaster until 1964 when it was surpassed by Montaña Rusa at La Feria Chapultepec Mágico in Mexico City, Mexico.
Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park is a family-owned amusement park located at Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It features six adult rides and 16 kiddie rides, including a dozen family rides that parents and children can ride together. The park is named for its main attraction, the Wonder Wheel, a 150-foot (46 m) eccentric wheel built in 1920.
Frederick A. Church (1878–1936) was an American engineer and early roller coaster designer. He is most famous for his "Bobs" series of roller coasters that featured severe banking, steep drops, and nonstop action.
Flip Flap Railway was the name of a looping wooden roller coaster which operated for a number of years at Paul Boyton's Sea Lion Park on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. The coaster, which opened in 1895, was the first looping roller coaster to operate in North America. It was also notable for its engineering as well as the extreme G-forces that this engineering inflicted on riders.
Loop the Loop was an early looping steel roller coaster which operated at Olentangy Park in Columbus, Ohio during the first decade of the 1900s. It was one of the first looping roller coasters to operate in North America, and it was designed and built by noted inventor Lina Beecher.
Loop the Loop was a dual-tracked steel roller coaster that operated on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, from 1901 to 1910. The coaster was one of the first looping roller coasters in North America.
Jazz Railway was an early model line of wood roller coasters incorporating a steel-frame structure. These operated at various amusement parks and fairgrounds during the mid to late 1920s. The coaster model is considered to be the first of the Wild Mouse style roller coaster.
The Sesquicentennial Cyclone was a steel-framed wooden roller coaster which was operated at the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exposition in 1926. Designed and built by Harry Traver of Traver Engineering, the coaster was a medium-sized prototype of Traver's later Giant Cyclone Safety Coasters.
Zip or Zipp was a steel-framed wooden roller coaster which operated at Oaks Amusement Park in Portland, Oregon. The coaster was a more compact variant of the Giant Cyclone Safety Coasters which were built by Harry Traver of the Traver Engineering Company in the mid to late 1920s.
Giant Cyclone Safety Coasters were a model line of roller coasters which were designed and marketed by Harry Traver and his company Traver Engineering in the 1920s. Despite their name, they had a dangerous reputation and are regarded by many historians as some of the most fearsome roller coasters ever built.
Drop the Dip, later known as Trip to the Moon, was a wooden roller coaster that operated at several locations in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, in the early 20th century. The coaster is considered by some to be the first truly high-speed roller coaster.
