Roller Coaster Fun

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Way before I was born on June 16, 1884 the first roller coaster in America opened at Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. As luck would have it this became my hometown. It was a wooden roller coaster that came along much later and survived the years which I got acquainted with. I was a teenager and went to the amusement park with my boyfriend and my friends, I was a victim of the phobia which made me scared of heights. I told my boyfriend that he and all of my friends could go for a wild ride but to leave me out of it. He absolutely insisted that I also join them. My head was spinning and my heart beating so fast I thought I would faint for sure. As a result of which I actually rolled myself under into the foot area of the car we were sitting in and that is how I managed to survive the ride. Just don’t even ask me how I didn’t fall out but it was a very deep pocket there. You can imagine when I came out of there what the look was on the face of the roller coaster operator. When this roller coaster first started rolling it was known as a switchback railway and was the creation of LaMarcus Thompson. It traveled six miles per hour and cost just a nickel to ride. The name Coney Island supposedly came from the Dutch Konijn Eilandt or Rabbit Island, a tract of land along the Atlantic Ocean discovered by explorer Henry Hudson in 1609. Three amusement parks started up at Coney Island between the years 1897 and 1904 – Dreamland, Luna Park and Steeplechase. By the 1920s the area could expect great crowds all summer long. By the mid-1960s Coney Island had become a bit rundown and many of the attractions were closing up. However the roller coaster made of wood known as the Cyclone had become a tourist attraction. It opened in 1927 and could take speed up to 60 mph and had a awesome 85-foot drop. Soon it became one of the country’s oldest coasters and that is when I got the pleasure or displeasure to ride it in the mid-1970s. You can still ride it today. So all of you roller coaster lovers get on over to Coney Island. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-roller-coaster-in-america-opens