Coney Island Cyclone | |
---|---|
Luna Park, Coney Island | |
Location | Luna Park, Coney Island |
Coordinates | 40°34′27″N73°58′40″W / 40.57417°N 73.97778°W |
Status | Operating |
Opening date | June 26, 1927[1] |
Cost | $175,000 |
Replaced | Giant Racer |
Designated | June 25, 1991 [2] |
Reference no. | 91000907 |
Designated | June 12, 1988 [3] |
Reference no. | 1636 |
General statistics | |
Designer | Vernon Keenan |
Track layout | Compact Twister |
Lift/launch system | Chain-lift |
Height | 85 ft (26 m) |
Length | 2,640 ft (800 m) |
Speed | 60 mph (97 km/h) |
Inversions | 0 |
Duration | 2:30 |
Max vertical angle | 58.1° |
Capacity | 1440 riders per hour |
G-force | 3.75 |
Height restriction | 54 in (137 cm) |
This is a Pay-Per-Use attraction | |
Coney Island Cyclone at RCDB |
The Cyclone, also called the Coney Island Cyclone, is a wooden roller coaster at Luna Park in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. Designed by Vernon Keenan, it opened to the public on June 26, 1927. The roller 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).
The roller coaster operated for more than four decades before it began to deteriorate, and by the early 1970s the city planned to scrap the ride. On June 18, 1975, Dewey and Jerome Albert, owners of the adjacent Astroland amusement park, entered an agreement with New York City to operate the ride. The roller coaster was refurbished in the 1974 off-season and reopened on July 3, 1975. Astroland Park continued to invest millions of dollars in the Cyclone's upkeep. The roller coaster was declared a New York City designated landmark in 1988 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. After Astroland closed in 2008, Cyclone Coasters president Carol Hill Albert continued to operate it under a lease agreement with the city. In 2011, Luna Park took over the Cyclone.
Coney Island was the largest amusement area in the United States from about 1880 to World War II, attracting several million visitors per year. At its height, it contained three amusement parks (Luna Park, Dreamland, and Steeplechase Park) and many independent amusements. [4] : 147–150 [5] : 11 [3] : 3 The Cyclone site was occupied by the Giant Racer from 1911 to 1926. [6] [7]
The success of the Thunderbolt and Tornado roller coasters, which respectively opened in 1925 and 1926, led Irving and Jack Rosenthal to acquire land at the intersection of Surf Avenue and West 10th Street for a coaster of their own. [3] : 5 [8] The Rosenthal brothers leased a land lot for 19 years from the Coast Holding Company, a syndicate composed of "many prominent business and amusement men of Coney". [9]
With a $100,000 investment, they hired leading coaster designer Vernon Keenan to design a new ride. [3] : 5 [8] [9] Harry C. Baker supervised the construction, while local companies provided the material, including steel contractor National Bridge Company and lumber contractor Cross, Austin, & Ireland. [3] : 5 [8] Its final cost was reportedly $146,000 to $175,000. When the Cyclone opened on June 26, 1927, a ride cost 25 cents (equivalent to $4.39in 2023 [10] ), except on Sundays and holidays, when the Rosenthals charged 35 cents. [9] With the success of the Cyclone, the Rosenthals installed a similar ride at Golden City Park in Canarsie, Brooklyn, in 1928. [11]
In 1935, the Rosenthals took over the management of New Jersey's Palisades Park. [12] The Cyclone was placed under the supervision of Christopher Feucht, a Coney Island entrepreneur who had built Drop the Dip in 1907. Feucht performed minor retracking work on the Cyclone [3] : 6 The ride's first drop was reduced by 5 feet (1.5 m) in 1939. [13] : 2 By that time, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses planned to clear a 100-foot-wide (30 m) area inland of the Riegelmann Boardwalk, which would have required the relocation or closure of the Cyclone. [14] [15] These plans were subsequently modified to preserve the amusement area there. [16] The ride remained extremely popular. [3] : 6 A person with dwarfism would originally zap disembarking riders with an electric paddle, a practice which ended during the 1950s. [17]
Sylvio and Al Pinto acquired the Cyclone in March 1959. [18] By the 1960s, attendance at Coney Island was declining. [17] [19] Increased crime, insufficient parking, poor weather, and the post-World War II automotive boom were all cited as contributing factors in the decline. [20] Coney Island's last remaining large theme park, Steeplechase Park, was closed in 1964 and subsequently demolished. [21] [22] : 172 [23] The Cyclone was sold to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) in 1965. [17] Around that time, the New York City government wanted to construct an expansion to the New York Aquarium, [24] which had been constructed east of the Cyclone in 1954. [25] The city began planning to acquire the Cyclone via eminent domain in 1967. Its owners, East Coaster Corporation, unsuccessfully fought the city; they did minimal long-term maintenance, enough to keep the ride operating safely. [24] The city bought the Cyclone for $1.2 million in 1969. [23]
The Cyclone was then operated under contract by East Coaster Corporation while the city worked with the New York Aquarium on plans to redevelop the site. There was a lack of long-term maintenance by the city, and the coaster soon received 101 safety violations. [24] In 1972, aquarium officials announced that they would replace the Cyclone with a swamp display. Opponents of the plan organized a "Save the Cyclone" campaign to contest the proposed demolition of the coaster. [26] This created a conflict between the aquarium, which supported the Cyclone's demolition, and the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce, which opposed it. [27] The owners of the AstroWorld theme park in Houston were considering buying the Coney Island Cyclone and moving it to Houston. This was eventually rejected as being too expensive, and AstroWorld's owners instead built a replica, which they branded as the Texas Cyclone. [28] [29]
By 1974, city officials doubted their decision to purchase the Cyclone and considered leasing the coaster to a private operator. [30] [31] The proposed demolition of the Cyclone was seen as potentially disastrous to Coney Island's economy. [23] The city changed its plans to dismantle the coaster and, in April 1975, invited sealed bids to lease operation of the ride. [24] The owners of the Astroland amusement park won the lease, with a bid of $57,000 per year. [32] After Astroland spent $60,000 to refurbish the Cyclone, the coaster reopened on July 3, 1975. [24] [3] : 6–7
During the 1986 season, insurance disputes forced the Cyclone to stay closed until July. [33] The Cyclone remained in operation as a separate enterprise following the 2008 closure of Astroland [34] and during the single operating season of Dreamland in 2009. [35] [36]
The adjacent Luna Park took over management of the Cyclone in 2011 [37] [38] and began a major refurbishment of the coaster during the off-season. [39] [40] The ride had not been refurbished since the 1970s, and various planks and other elements of the structure had come loose. Although Luna Park officials said the Cyclone's maximum speed and layout would remain unchanged, roller coaster enthusiasts expressed concern that the refurbishment would make the ride experience smoother, saying that the Cyclone's roughness was a major characteristic of the ride. [41] [42] Luna Park hired Great Coasters International (GCI) to refurbish the roller coaster. [39] [43]
The roller coaster remained largely intact after the surrounding area was flooded during Hurricane Sandy in late 2012. [44] [45] GCI completed its refurbishment of the Cyclone in 2016. [46] [47] The Cyclone did not operate during the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City; [48] [49] it reopened during the 2021 season. [50] [51]
The wooden roller coaster [a] covers 75 feet (23 m) at 834 Surf Avenue and 500 feet (150 m) on West 10th Street, [3] : 12 which is owned by NYC Parks. [23] The former concession stands (built into the coaster's structure) was home to the Coney Island History Project, [53] which was moved to a space near the Wonder Wheel. [54] A souvenir stand selling Cyclone-based shirts, hats, and on-ride photos remains. [53] The Cyclone is considered an "irreplaceable" structure, since timber-supported coasters can no longer be built under modern New York City building codes. [55]
The track is 2,640 feet (800 m) long, including six fan turns and twelve drops. The ride's top speed is 60 miles per hour (97 km/h), and each ride takes about one minute and fifty seconds. The brown wooden track has red wood fencing alongside it and has a white structural framework, giving it a distinctive appearance. [56] [57] [52] The steel framework is composed of vertical I-beams, horizontal tie bars, and diagonal cross-bracing beams, connected by riveted steel plates. [13] : 2 "Cyclone" appears in large, red, incandescent letters on the east and west sides of the lift hill; [13] : 3 [3] : 6 the letters on this sign were originally 10 feet (3.0 m) high. [9] The coaster is surrounded by a fence. [13] : 3 Before 2000, the Cyclone's 58.1-degree initial drop was the third-steepest drop of any wooden coaster in the world. As of 2014 [update] , it has the ninth-steepest drop of any wood coaster worldwide. [58]
The Cyclone has three trains, each with three cars; one train can run at a time. Riders are arranged two across in four rows, for a total of 24 riders per train. The trains have bench seating (rather than individual seats for each passenger), and a single-position lap-bar restraint system which drops across the entire row. The seats do not have headrests. [56] [52] [3] : 6
The Cyclone is a pay-per-use attraction, since each ride in Luna Park charges a number of credits for admission. [59] Ride admission is also included in Luna Park's fixed-date and any-date passes. [60] "Bonus credits" accumulated by the purchase of ride credits cannot be used for the coaster. [59] The station is accessed from the ticket booth on West 10th Street. It consists of two wooden platforms, one on each side of the track; the outer (western) platform is for riders who are boarding, and the inner (eastern) platform is for exiting riders. The station is under a gable roof canopy supported by a steel arch frame, which has segmented arcades along its sides. A mechanical room is partly underneath, and next to, the platform. [8] [13] : 3 Outside the station is a vertical sign with incandescent letters spelling "CYCLONE", [8] [13] : 3 which measures 45 feet (14 m) high. [9]
The train leaves the station heading north and immediately turns right at an almost 180-degree angle, which leads to an 85-foot (26 m) lift hill. It then moves over the first 58.1-degree drop; as the train reaches the bottom of the drop, it comes close to the track above for a headchopper effect. The train then ascends into the first high-speed U-turn to the left, descending again beneath the lift hill and rising to the second 70-foot-tall (21 m) U-turn to the right. It descends parallel to the lift hill, enters a camelback hill and rises to a smaller banked right U-turn, where it dives under the first high-speed curve. After the third U-turn, the train enters a second camelback hill with a fan turn and a smaller airtime section as it approaches a fourth U-turn to the right. The train hops several times more, paralleling the second drop, before entering a final right curve. It drops slightly, ascends into a tunnel with a small left fan turn, and enters a brake run just before re-entering the station. [56] [57]
At least three people have died after riding the Cyclone. On May 26, 1985, a 29-year-old man was killed when he stood up and hit his head on a crossbeam. [61] On August 23, 1988, a 26-year-old maintenance worker, riding in the back seat during his lunch break, was killed after falling 30 feet (9.1 m) from the coaster and landing on a crossbeam of a lower section of track. The ride was closed after the incident but reopened a day later after safety inspectors concluded it was safe. [62] Keith Shirasawa, a 53-year-old man, suffered several crushed vertebrae in his neck while riding the Cyclone on July 31, 2007, and died four days later due to complications during surgery. [63] [64]
On June 12, 2008, a woman rode the Cyclone and later claimed that she had been seriously injured due to the ride. She was awarded $1.5 million in damages in 2015, despite being found partly at fault. [65]
On August 22, 2024, the Cyclone was halted mid-ride upon discovery of a crack in the lift hill chain's sprocket, forcing the evacuation of several riders without injury. [66] The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) subsequently issued Luna Park two violations for failure to maintain the ride and immediately notify the DOB of the incident. [67] The Cyclone was repaired and reopened two weeks later on September 7. [68]
Aviator Charles Lindbergh was said to have ridden the Cyclone two years after it opened, [69] and reportedly called the experience "greater than flying an airplane at top speed". [70] [55] Emilio Franco, a mute coal miner with aphonia, visited Coney Island in 1948 and reportedly screamed while going down the Cyclone's first drop. Franco also reportedly said, "I feel sick" as his train returned to the station. According to multiple accounts, he fainted after realizing that he had spoken. [3] : 6 [17] [71] Although one version of the story reported that Franco had been mute since birth, [70] a contemporary New York Times story said that he had been mute for five years. [71]
Michael Boodley set a record in 1975 for the most consecutive trips on the Cyclone, riding it 1,001 times over a 45-hour period. [72] Nineteen-year-old Richard Rodriguez broke the record from August 18 to 22, 1977, riding the coaster for 104 hours. He took short bathroom breaks between rides, eating hot dogs and M&Ms and drinking shakes during the ride itself. Rodriguez broke his own record for the longest roller-coaster marathon in 2007, riding for 405 hours and 40 minutes at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in the United Kingdom. [72] In 2009, the Coney Island History Project gave an award to Howie Lipstein, who had ridden the Cyclone for 50 consecutive years. [73] [74] In 2019, Luna Park honored him for riding for 60 consecutive years. [75]
The Cyclone was named a city landmark in 1988 [3] and a National Historic Landmark in 1991. [76] An ACE Coaster Classic and Coaster Landmark, [77] [78] it inspired the name of the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team, which plays at nearby Maimonides Park. [79]
The popularity of the Cyclone has inspired eight replica coasters that share (or mirror) a similar layout. [17] [80] Four replicas of the Cyclone were built at Six Flags parks: Viper at Six Flags Great America; [81] [80] Psyclone at Six Flags Magic Mountain; [82] [83] [80] the Texas Cyclone at Six Flags AstroWorld; [84] [85] [80] and the Georgia Cyclone at Six Flags Over Georgia. [86] [80] Of these, only Viper is still operational in its original state. [80] [b] International replicas include Bandit at Movie Park Germany; the defunct White Canyon at Yomiuriland in Japan, and the defunct Aska at Japan's Nara Dreamland. [90] [80]
The Riverside Cyclone, built in 1983 at Riverside Amusement Park (now Six Flags New England), was inspired by the design of the Coney Island Cyclone. [91] Later known as the Cyclone, it was closed in 2014 and replaced with Wicked Cyclone, [92] constructed by Rocky Mountain Construction. [93] Despite the shared name, the Riverside Cyclone was not a replica of the Coney Island Cyclone. [93]
Year | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ranking | 7 [94] | 8 [95] | 11 [96] | 11 [97] | 13 [98] | 16 [99] | 16 [100] | 14 [101] | 16 [102] | 14 [103] | 16 [104] | 14 [105] | 13 [106] | 15 [107] | 14 [108] | 19 [109] | 22 [110] | 16 [111] | 27 [112] | 22 [113] | 29 [114] | 28 [115] | 13 (tie) [116] | 17 [117] | 16 [118] | 12 [119] |
A roller coaster is a type of amusement ride employing a form of elevated railroad track that carries passengers on a train through tight turns, steep slopes, and other elements usually designed to produce a thrilling experience. Trains consist of open cars connected in a single line, and the rides are often found in theme parks around the world. Roller coasters first appeared in the 17th century, and LaMarcus Adna Thompson obtained one of the first known patents for a roller coaster design in 1885, based on the Switchback Railway which opened a year earlier at Coney Island.
Coney Island is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to the north and includes the subsection of Sea Gate on its west. More broadly, the Coney Island peninsula consists of Coney Island proper, Brighton Beach, and Manhattan Beach. This was formerly the westernmost of the Outer Barrier islands on the southern shore of Long Island, but in the early 20th century it became connected to the rest of Long Island by land fill.
Playland, often called Rye Playland and also known as Playland Amusement Park, is an amusement park located in Rye, New York, along the Long Island Sound. Built in 1928, the 280-acre (110 ha) park is owned by the Westchester County government. Beginning in 2018 the park has been operated under contract by Standard Amusements.
Luna Park was an amusement park that operated in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, United States, from 1903 to 1944. The park was located on a site bounded by Surf Avenue to the south, West 8th Street to the east, Neptune Avenue to the north, and West 12th Street to the west. Luna Park was located partly on the grounds of the small park it replaced, Sea Lion Park, which operated between 1895 and 1902. It was the second of the three original, very large, iconic parks built on Coney Island; the others were Steeplechase Park and Dreamland. At Coney Island's peak in the middle of the 20th century's first decade, the three amusement parks competed with each other and with many independent amusements.
Steeplechase Park was an amusement park that operated in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, United States, from 1897 to 1964. Steeplechase Park was created by the entrepreneur George C. Tilyou as the first of the three large amusement parks built on Coney Island, the other two being Luna Park (1903) and Dreamland (1904). Of the three, Steeplechase was the longest-lasting, running for 67 years.
Twisted Cyclone, formerly known as Georgia Cyclone, is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Over Georgia in Austell, Georgia. Manufactured by Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC), the ride opened to the public on May 25, 2018. It features RMC's patented I-Box Track technology and utilizes a significant portion of Georgia Cyclone's former support structure. Originally constructed by the Dinn Corporation, Georgia Cyclone first opened on March 3, 1990.
The Comet is a wooden roller coaster located at Six Flags Great Escape and Hurricane Harbor in Queensbury, New York, in the United States.
Wicked Cyclone is a hybrid roller coaster located at the Six Flags New England amusement park in Agawam, Massachusetts. The ride originally opened as a wooden roller coaster named Cyclone on June 24, 1983. Its name and design were inspired by the historic 1927 Coney Island Cyclone in Brooklyn, New York. In 2014, after 32 seasons, Cyclone was closed while being re-tracked with steel. It reopened as Wicked Cyclone on May 24, 2015.
Viper is a wooden roller coaster located at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, which opened in 1995. Viper is a mirrored replica of the Coney Island Cyclone and is the only roller coaster ever to be built directly by Six Flags. It was built by Rygiel Construction.
Boulder Dash is a wooden roller coaster located at Lake Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut. The coaster was built by Custom Coasters International using Southern Yellow Pine wood, while the track is made of Douglas Fir. Amusement Today's annual Golden Ticket Awards ranked Boulder Dash as the world's best wooden roller coaster in 2004 and from 2013 to 2016. The trains were built by Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (PTC).
Astroland was a 3.1-acre (1.3 ha) amusement park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City that opened in 1962. It was located at 1000 Surf Avenue on the boardwalk. It ceased operations on September 7, 2008.
Grizzly is a wooden roller coaster at Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia. The grounds of the ride are densely forested, with the intended thrills heightened from the illusion of inadequate clearance between the track and trees. The attraction opened in 1982, and the double-figure-eight layout is based closely on the defunct Coney Island Wildcat. A similar version of this ride operates at Canada's Wonderland as Wilde Beast.
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.
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.
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.
Thunderbolt is a steel roller coaster at Luna Park in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. It is located near Surf Avenue and West 15th Street, on the Riegelmann Boardwalk next to the B&B Carousell.
Fort George Amusement Park was a trolley park and amusement park that operated in the Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods of Upper Manhattan, New York City, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It occupied an area between 190th and 192nd Streets east of Amsterdam Avenue, within present-day Highbridge Park.
A boardwalk is a promenade along a beach or waterfront. In North America, and particularly in the United States, many waterfront commercial boardwalks have become so successful as tourist attractions that the simple wooden pathways have been replaced by esplanades made of concrete, brick or other construction, sometimes with a wooden façade on the surface. An entertainment boardwalk often contains an amusement park, casinos, or hotels on a pier-like structure. One of the earliest such boardwalks was designed in New Jersey and opened June 26, 1870, in Atlantic City, and one of the longest is Mazatlán's Malecón, at 13 miles (21 km) of oceanfront boardwalk.
A hybrid roller coaster is a category of roller coasters where the track is made out of one material, either steel or wood, and the support structure is made from another. Early hybrid coasters include mine train roller coasters from Arrow Development, which feature a steel track with a wooden support structure. Becoming increasingly more common are hybrids with wooden tracks and steel supports, such as The Voyage at Holiday World.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)