Stephen M. Silverman - The Amusement Park: 900 Years of Thrills and Spills, and the Dreamers and Schemers Who Built Them

Copyright 2019 by Stephen M. Silverman

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First Edition: May 2019

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Silverman, Stephen M., author.

Title: The amusement park : 900 years of thrills and spills, and the dreamers and schemers who built them / Stephen M. Silverman.

Description: First edition. | New York : Black Dog and Leventhal, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018045168| ISBN 9780316416481 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780316416474 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Amusement parksHistory. | Amusement parksDesign and constructionHistory. | Amusement park ownersAnecdotes.

Classification: LCC GV1851.A35 S55 2019 | DDC 791.06/8dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018045168

ISBNs: 978-0-316-41648-1 (hardcover), 978-0-316-41647-4 (ebook)

E3-20190423-JV-PC-COR

For my cousin, Pamela Greller, who claimed at Pacific Ocean Park when she was ten (and I was eight), The Sea Serpent isnt scary.

Very funny, Pam.

When large numbers of people share their joy in common The happiness of each is greater Because each adds fuel to the others flame.

ST. AUGUSTINE

T he time: the present. You are about to board the fastest roller coaster on the planet, the 149-mile-per-hour Formula Rossa, the pride of the Ferrari World Abu Dhabi theme parkwhere pride, like much else in this United Arab Emirates architectural showcase, comes supersized. But before being launched from inside a glistening pavilion that spans the length of seven football fields, there is the matter of adjusting your racing goggles, to keep the bugs out of your eyes.

Not a car fan? No worries, because Ferrari World is but one spoke in many amusement park wheels. According to recent figures, some one thousand fun parks span the globe, generating an annual $220 billion from visitors who total more than 475 million. Formerly the prized domains of Southern California and Central Florida, amusement parks are now the expected norm in a range of far-off places from Azerbaijan to Desaru, Johor, to Darwin city, where the parks theme is crocodiles.

From above, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi could pass for the mother ship of a Testarossa. Inside, its high-octane rides include the worlds fastest roller coaster.

The Midway Plaisance of the Chicago 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition hastened the development of the American amusement park.

For those seeking pedigree, the oldest continuously running park in the world is Bakken, in Klampenborg, Denmark, which has been gladdening crowds since 1583, although an expertthats practically any enthusiast with an annual pass and a 360fly camerawill tell you that Bakken has only had rides for the past three hundred years. That still qualifies it as the oldest.

While America wont be marking her tricentennial for more than another half century, the nations oldest amusement park is Bristol, Connecticuts 1846 Lake Compounce, named for John Compound, a Mattatuck-Tunxis chieftain who accidentally drowned in his namesake while attempting to cross it in a large brass kettle.

In the ride arena, the worlds oldest carousel, built in 1780 for Prince Wilhelm IX of Hessen-Kassel, is no longer functional, but can be seen at Wilhelmsbad Park in Hanau, Germany, birthplace of the Brothers Grimm. Americas oldest, the 1876 Flying Horses, from toymaker Charles W. F. Dare, continues to make the rounds on Marthas Vineyard, one of only twenty carousels in the United States that still rewards a free ride to the grabber of the brass ring.

The longest-spinning Ferris Wheel is the 1897 Wiener Riesenrad, at the Prater in Vienna; the oldest roller coaster is the 10 mph, 1902 Leap-the-Dips, in Altoona, Pennsylvanias Lakemont Park, although the 1912 Scenic Railway in Melbourne, Australias Luna Park also lays claim to the title, given the Leap-the-Dips frequent and lengthy hiatuses.

The tallest? Kingda Ka, at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, forty-five stories high, with an initial 128 mph drop of 418 feet. The longest? The 1.54-mile Steel Dragon 2000, at Nagashima Spa Land in Kuwana, Mie Prefecture, Japan.

In a realm all its own is the worlds tallest, fastest, steepest wood-steel hyper hybrid, Steel Vengeance, a 2018 addition to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, which seems to break roller coaster records more often than dishes break in a roadside diner. Its more-than-eleven-mile-long track delivers a 73 mph airtime hill with 27.2 seconds of weightlessness.

Only the biggest and best may be yet to come.

At 1.54 miles, the coaster track for Japans Nagashima Spa Lands Steel Dragon 2000 holds the record for worlds longest.