A French business man noticed how popular the ice coasters were in Russia and decided to build a large ice coaster in France. Russia is a lot colder than France and the poor Frenchman landed up with not a coaster but a large puddle of slush. The Frenchman was disappointed but not discouraged. He thought he would try and build a coaster that could be used in any climate and constructed a coaster using wood. He waxed the wood and created hills and valleys. He added rollers to the bottom of the sled. This was the birth of the wooden roller coaster, but these coasters were very dangerous and there were many accidents. The accidents didn't stop the French coasters from becoming very popular.

New track structures were created that guided the sled down in a straight line. All of a sudden there were much fewer collisions. A new type of coaster was created. Two people would race their sled from opposite ends of two tracks. The riders would be on separate tracks down to the bottom in a race. This ride was very popular and promoted betting.

Tracks were getting more and more complex and in the 1850's, in France, a loop to loop was constructed and it was called The Centrifuge Railway. It used not a sled but a coaster car. The car was held to the track with only centrifugal force. This same force held the rider in the car. After an accident the French government put a stop to this.

Let's take a look at some of today's death defying coasters:

The tallest roller coaster in the world is the Millennium Force. At this moment it is also the fastest coaster. It stands 310 feet high and travels at 93 mph. It contains 6,595 feet of track. The coaster is located in Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.

Kings Dominion in Virginia contains several great coasters.

Hypersonic XLC

This coaster will wake you up.

 

Shockwave

You ride this coaster standing up.

Volcano The Blast Coaster

Avalanche

This is really a bob sled and technically a roller coaster

Here are a couple of coasters at Bush Gardens in Virginia.

Apollo's Chariot

This is two separate coasters with intertwining tracks. The yellow tracks are the Loch Ness Monster while the blue tracks are Alpengeist.

An other interesting coaster, even though it is called a bob sled, exists at Disneyland in California.

Matterhorn Bobsled

You are probably saying, hey were are the tracks. The answer is simple, they are inside the mountain.

You can find interesting roller coasters all over the country. While some are grander than others, they all offer some degree of excitement. There are a couple in Las Vegas that are interesting.

Coaster at New York, New York.

The past twenty years has seen over 1500 roller coasters built worldwide. A new industry has arisen that takes in over $800,000,000 U.S. dollars per year. If a theme or amusement park adds a new roller coaster it can increase revenue by as much as eleven percent. Source: International Association of Amusements Parks and Attractions.

There are several factors that influence your feel of a roller coaster ride. You riding position is important. The new Superman roller coaster has you hanging in a sort of superman flying position. You are under the ride and traveling head first. This ride is not the fastest, but going through those loops in this position is truly thrilling. The ride has a top speed of 72 mph. Superman will accommodate 1500 people per hour.

Until something more thrilling comes along the roller coaster will remain king of the hill. (Pun intended)