Brief History of Cedar Points Amazing Roller Coasters

Since the introduction of the park's first roller coaster in 1892, Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio has come a long way in it's ability to continually provide the best, most thrilling, cutting edge coasters to it's attendee's and thrill seekers from all over the United States for over 100 years now.

This article will look into the history of Cedar Points' coasters and the way that they have evolved into what we have available to us today. With the introduction and opening of the Maverick on Saturday, May 26,2007; I felt this would be a great time to take a look back at the history of roller coasters at Cedar Point.

In 1892, the very first roller coaster at Cedar Point, the Switchback Railway was opened to park goers and offered a maximum climb height of 25 feet, the ride's first and tallest hill. It's fastest speed reached a whopping 10 miles per hour. Just imagine how exciting that would have been over a hundred years ago. For the 20^th century Cedar Point debuted its second coaster ten years later in 1902. The park opened the Figure-Eight Roller Toboggan. It was a 46 foot tall wooden coaster that operated from it's opening in 1902 until 1909.

The Cyclone opened in 1929. It was a 72-foot tall coaster built along the beach of Lake Erie. It is referred to as being "Scientifically Built for Speed, Thrills and Safety" at the time. 1964 brought thrill seekers the Blue Streak. It is still currently in operation today at the park. The Blue Streak is a wooden coaster. It's biggest hill measures 78 feet and reaches speeds of up to 40 miles per hour. The Cedar Creek Mine Ride opened in 1969. It is one of the first roller coasters to use steel tubular track. It features a 48-foot hill and top speeds of approximately 42 miles per hour.

Appropriately enough, in 1976 cedar Point opened up a brand new shiny red white and blue coaster called the Corkscrew. The Corkscrew offered riders the thrill of being suspended upside down not once but twice during the duration of the ride. It is the first coaster in the world to have 3 inversions. The ride features a 5 mile per hour climb up an 85 foot hill and then immediately drops 65 feet and reaches speeds of up to 48 miles per hour. Next up comes the double corkscrew experience with a maximum speed of 38 miles per hour. The famous Gemini opened at the park in 1978. The Gemini is famous for being known as "the tallest and fastest scream machine on the planet" at that time. The ride offers two sets of rider trains on parallel tracks. It offers riders the feel of a race to the end at speeds of 60 miles an hour on twists and turns and climbs of 125 feet.

In 1985 Avalanche Run opened. In 1990 Avalanche Run was re-named Disaster Transport. This is not the traditional coaster. It was a steel bobsled type ride enclosed in a building featuring 40 mile an hour speeds and fantastic special effects such as big screen projections, simulated laser light displays, over 100 props, and two robots set in a space themed indoor environment. The Iron Dragon, Cedar Point's first suspended roller coaster opened up in 1987. This ride takes riders for their first thrill up 76 feet with a second thrill up 62 feet. Speeds average 35 to 40 miles an hour.

In 1989 Cedar Point amazed attendee's once again with the introduction of the Magnum XL 200. It is the first roller coaster to top 200 feet in height. At the time it was built it was the tallest and fastest roller coaster ever built. This ride drops the rider 195 feet down at 72 miles an hour on a 60-degree angle, which is one of the steepest angles in the roller coaster world. But this wasn't enough for the Cedar Point thrill seekers so the park amazed us again with the Mean Streak in 1991. The Mean Streak sounds like an appropriate name for the ride as well. It takes riders 161 feet on the first hill at speeds of 65 miles per hour. The Mean Streak is billed as the tallest and fastest wooden roller coaster in the world yet today.

The Raptor soon followed in 1994. It is advertised as "the tallest and fastest inverted roller coaster in the world." It takes riders 137 feet above the midway and reaches speeds of 57 miles per hour. It also takes the riders on the fling of their lifetime as it spins them upside down six times during the ride at a 180-degree angle. Right on the heels of the Raptor, two years later in 1996 Cedar Point opened up yet another magnificent coaster called the Mantis. The Mantis is known as the tallest and fastest stand up coaster in the world. This ride takes the riders 145 feet down the first hill at 60 miles an hour, all while the rider is standing. It features loops and flips and flat spins during the duration of the ride and ends with a figure eight twist.

And the twenty first century wouldn't be complete without Cedar Points introduction of the Millennium Force in 2000. Again the park boasts the tallest and fastest in the world with this one. The unbelievable structure offers the rider a 93 mile an hour ride and hill climbs of up to 310 feet, two tunnels, and two overbanked turns at 122-degrees each. 2002 brought us the Wicked Twister. This ride is dubbed "the tallest and fastest "double-twisting" impulse roller coaster ever created." It offers the rider a seat suspended from above and immediately hurls the rider up a 90-degree twisting track, then it rushes the rider back through the process and into another twisting climb. This process continues for 5 trips back and forth through the twisted, turning rails. Both main towers twist at 450-degree angles.

In 2003 Cedar Point wowed it's attendee's with yet another tallest, fastest coaster spiel when it came to The Top Thrill Dragster. But they weren't kidding. This ride reaches an amazing 420-foot tall coaster, which includes such thrills as starting off with an immediate launch forward at 120 miles per hour in about 4 seconds. Then the ride takes the rider up 420 feet on a 90 degree twisting first hill. Once the seat reaches the top of the structure, you are then dropped back down a 400-foot hill on a track that twists not 90 degrees but a full 270 degrees back down to the earth.

This past Saturday, May 26^th, 2007, Cedar Point opened its latest and 17^th roller coaster to the public. The newest roller coaster addition to the park is the Maverick. According to Cedar Point, The Maverick "treats riders to multiple terrain-hugging elements that have never been experienced on a Cedar Point roller coaster." The Maverick features two LSM launches during the ride. The first of which sends the rider up a 105-foot hill and back down 100 feet on a 95-degree angle at approximately 57 miles an hour. The second launch takes thrill seekers through a 400 foot tunnel and underneath the station at speeds up to 70 miles an hour.

Each coaster added to Cedar Point over the years shows the advance in technology and capabilities of the engineers and builders. From the very first 10 mile an hour coaster, the Switchback Railway to the 120 mile an hour thrill of the Top Thrill Dragster, one thing is for certain, Cedar Point has never lost it's ability to draw the thrill seekers, the live life on the edge types, and hoards and hoards of families who enjoy not just coasters but all of the attractions Cedar Point has to offer. May the future be as brilliant as the past for this little northeastern amusement park located on the shores of beautiful Lake Erie in Sandusky, Ohio.