16th June 1884: America’s first roller coaster, the Switchback Railway, opened at Coney Island

Although the world’s oldest roller coasters can be traced back to the ‘Russian Mountain’ sledding slopes of the 18th century, the idea spread to France where tracks for wheeled vehicles began to be developed over the course of the next hundred years. In the United States, the Mauch Chunk gravity railroad that had been built to haul coal offered thrill seekers their first experience of riding down a track at high speeds when the owners began to take paying passengers.
Inspired by the Mauch Chunk railway and the subsequent ‘inclined plane railway’ designs of Richard Knudsen, Ohio-born inventor LaMarcus Adna Thompson began to design what would become America’s first purpose-built roller coaster in the early 1880s. Constructed at New York City’s Coney Island in 1884, the Switchback Railway was 600 feet long and cost $1,600 to build.
Consisting of two undulating wooden tracks that ran parallel to each other, passengers on the Switchback Railway had to climb a tower after riding down and then wait while the bench-like car was pushed to top and switched to the other track for the return journey. Having opened on 16 June 1884, passengers paid 5 cents a ride and achieved speeds of up to 6 miles per hour. Despite this seemingly unimpressive performance, the Switchback Railway reportedly paid for itself in just three weeks.
This success led to Thompson constructing similar rides that went on to feature painted scenery, dark tunnels, and moving cables to haul the cars up the inclines. In 1895 he established the L. A. Thompson Scenic Railway Company and over the next few decades roller coasters began to spread across the country.

[@Bananapickle23]

Anniversary of this today! Anyone else watching in 2022?

[@waveiscursed]

i like how there is eltororyan, mean streak henry, psyclone steve, and now switchback railway lamarcus adna thompson

[@skellingtonmeteoryballoon]

6 mph🪃
the scenic railway 😍

[@papaeric1366]

Really good👍

[@historypod]

Thank you!

[@badreality2]

Really good, except inventors really weren't developing rollercoasters for "100" years.
More like Russia-->France, then the coal rides was self-inspired, because letting rail cars coast, was how workers used gravity to move their load, and when the coal mine was empty, they still had working infrastructure that inspired the Switchback Railway.

[@spingleboygle]

this is the reason so many npc guests have been caused pain and suffering by my parks in rollercoaster tycoon XD

[@aotoda486]

For the algo!

[@johnfoy2840]

Thanks for this fascinating post. I found the ACTUAL VIDEO of the Switchback Railway running in 1884 to be nothing less than astonishing. Thanks for the history lesson. Keep up the great work!! btw I hope you don't mind that I just added this to CZcams's Awesome Coney Island Videos..... czcams.com/play/PLZY0gh4CnM6glItC0gJ3lbZ2xQJpVx0RU.html