History of the Rollercoaster

The Humble Beginnings

The roller coaster has its origins in the Russian ice slides of the 1700's. Built by stacking blocks of ice and snow on a structure made out of lumber, the slides were only possible during winter. The "riders" climbed up a ladder, sat on a sled made of wood or ice, and sped down the "mountain." Drawings from the period depict structures reaching up to a height of 50 feet.

In the years that followed, the slide was imported to France, where a waxed wooden slope was constructed to replace the original ice slide (which melted even in winter) and a sled with rollers perfected to increase the speed of the ride. With the new wheeled sled came the idea of actually creating tracks to ensure the riders would slide down on a straight line, and thus avoid accidents and collisions. The first tracks were actually double, so two cars could slide down side to side at the same time, in a sort of race. By 1817, France opened Les Montagues Russes a Belleville, a coaster where the wheels of the cars actually locked into the tracks, allowing for safer (and taller) rides.

America's love for roller coasters began early on, with the creation of the Mach Chunk Switchback Railway in 1872. The railway was originally designed to transport coal from the top of a mountain to the Mach Chunk port. The 18-mile ride downhill worked by simple gravity, with somebody pushing the car downhill and watching it slide. Eventually, somebody got the idea of turning Mach Chunk into a thrill ride at night, and the place became an instant hit. A steam engine was added to haul the wagons uphill, where they would be loaded with passengers and pushed down the hill again. American's love for roller coasters had been born.

La Marcus Thompson, the father of the American roller coaster, followed the design of the early Russian ice slides to create the first official roller coaster, The Switchback Railway, a two-track slide with rolling hills, a 50-foot drop, and a top speed of six mph. The ride opened at Coney Island, New York City, in 1884 and made Thompson a household name.