History of the roller coaster

The history of the roller coaster stretches back to ice slides constructed in 18th century Russia and spans all the way to the many and varied coasters of today. In between, numerous technological innovations have been introduced to make coasters bigger, faster, and safer than those that came before.

The world's oldest roller coasters descended from the "Russian Mountains," which were specially constructed hills of snow located in the gardens of palaces around the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, in the 18th century. This attraction was called a Katalnaya Gorka or "sliding hill" in Russian. The slides were built to a height of between 70 feet (21 m) and 80 feet (24 m), had a 50 degree drop, and were reinforced by wooden supports. Sometimes wheeled carts were used instead of sleds. These slides became popular with the Russian upper class, and with Catherine II of Russia herself, who had such mountains built in the gardens of the Oranienbaum Palace near St. Petersburg, with a pavilion next to it for drinking tea after the sliding. "Russian mountains" remains the term for roller coasters in many languages, such as Spanish (), Italian (), French () and Portuguese (). Ironically, the Russian term for roller coaster, (amerikanskie gorki), translates literally as "American mountains."

The first roller coasters with wheeled vehicles on tracks appeared in Paris in the early 19th century. The Les Montagnes Russes à Belleville (The Russian Mountains of Belleville) and the Promenades Aeriennes in Parc Beaujon (1817) both featured wheeled cars securely locked to the track, guide rails to keep them on course, and higher speeds. The first permanent loop track was probably also built in Paris from an English design in 1846, with a single-person wheeled sled running through a 13-foot (4 m) diameter vertical loop. These early single loop designs were called Centrifugal Railways.

In the 1850s, a mining company in Summit Hill, Pennsylvania constructed the Mauch Chunk gravity railroad, a brakeman-controlled, 8.7 mile (14 km) downhill track used to deliver coal to Mauch Chunk (now known as Jim Thorpe), Pennsylvania. By 1872, the "Gravity Road" (as it became known) was providing rides to thrill-seekers for 10 cents a ride. Railway companies used similar tracks to provide amusement on days when ridership was low.

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