“Roller Coasters” were first ridden in Russia in the 1400's. They were put up during festivals and celebrations. I put roller coasters in quotes because They weren't really roller coasters. They were actually giant slides with sleds that slid down the icy artificial slope. The slope was made out of a wood frame and they let snow fall on the frame and then doused it with water to make ice. The tallest ones were 70-100 feet tall and could travel at speeds of up to 55 mph.
When the ice slides were brought to Europe the were modified so they ran on a wooden track and had carts with wheels so they could be operated in the warm spring and summer weather. The first one of these built in Europe was called Russian Mountains. It was built in the early seventeen-hundreds in France. It had two tracks which were lifted upward on the first part of the track going right next to each other. Then one track turned left and started going down hill and one went right and started going downhill as it curved until the two tracks came back to where they started.
This ride was very popular but it had a high injury rate. It had a high injury rate because if the wheel hit even a small obstruction on the track the cart could go flying off and injure the occupant. Sometimes even when the cars didn't fly off the tracks the people would sometimes fall out of the cars. Another roller coaster opened in France just a few years later. It had the same track design but had guard rails which about cut in half the number of accidents.
New Ideas in North America
When roller coasters first came to North America new ideas came with them. There were new design for powered lift hills. One that was powered by a windmill and one by a water wheel and one even by an early steam engine. There were even some people who wanted to make roller coasters more interactive by having people throw spears through rings or to haul themselves up the first hill. None of these ideas were ever actually use practically. The first patents for roller coasters in the U.S. Were both made in 1870 by J. G. Taylor and another by Richard Knudsen. Neither of these roller coasters were actually ever built.
In the early 1800's there was a short railroad line used to transport from the top of Mount Pigsah to a lower canal in Mauch Chunk. Mules pulled the cars up the bottom and then rode down with the coal to haul it back up. The people in Mauch Chunk thought they could make some money and people could have fun if the Mauch Chunk Railway carried people up and down as an amusement.
Instead of mules a steam engine was installed to pull it to the top of the hill. The train was modified to being one big car that could hold lots of people and was safer to ride in. It opened to the public in 1873 and ran until 1938. It cost five cents to ride and had 38,000 riders the first year. That means in the first year in made 1,750 dollars. There are no accurate records but it is said that it got going
over 100 miles per hour.
America's first true roller coaster was the Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway opened at Coney Island in 1884. It was designed by LaMarcus Adna Thompson after he saw the popularity of the Mauch Chunk railway. It could hold 10 people at once and cost five cents with a low top speed of 6 miles per hour (A very fast walk). It had 12,000 passengers every day making 600 dollars per day. The 12,600 dollar cost to build it was repaid in just three weeks. This is considered they first true roller coaster in the U.S. Because it was built specifically for having fun. It was 45 feet tall and 600 feet long. It was really two tracks running right next to each other. When you got to the end you climbed up stairs, got onto the other track after the car was lifted up and rode back to where you started.
In the next year two more roller coasters were opened at Coney Island. First Charles Aycock built the Serpentine Railway. This was more popular than Thompson's coaster because it was an oval track and had an incline it had to be hauled up to get back to the start of the ride. Also riders sat on a park bench like seat and it made it look like they were going faster than the actual 12 miles per hour; twice as fast as the Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway. This ride was much more popular than Thompson's. The next one to open was the Gravity Pleasure Road. It had many new things an features that led to what the modern roller coaster is. It had the first lift hill where the power source wasn't in the cars. This made it so the roller coaster could go in a continuous circuit. This made it so it had a higher passenger capacity. Now that these two roller coasters were built it was hurting Thompson's business.
