The Cyclone
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The Cyclone, also called the Coney Island Cyclone, is a
wooden roller coaster A wooden roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its wooden track, which consists of running rails made of flat steel strips mounted on laminated wood. The support structure is also typically made of wood, but may also be ...
at Luna Park in the
Coney Island Coney Island is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to ...
neighborhood of
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. Designed by Vernon Keenan, it opened to the public on June 26, 1927. The roller coaster is on a plot of land at the intersection of Surf Avenue and West 10th Street. The Cyclone reaches a maximum speed of and has a total track length of , with a maximum height of . The roller coaster operated for more than four decades before it began to deteriorate, and by the early 1970s the city planned to scrap the ride. On June 18, 1975, Dewey and Jerome Albert, owners of the adjacent Astroland amusement park, entered an agreement with New York City to operate the ride. The roller coaster was refurbished in the 1974 off-season and reopened on July 3, 1975. Astroland Park continued to invest millions of dollars in the Cyclone's upkeep. The roller coaster was declared a
New York City designated landmark The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and c ...
in 1988 and was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1991. After Astroland closed in 2008, Cyclone Coasters president Carol Hill Albert continued to operate it under a lease agreement with the city. In 2011, Luna Park took over the Cyclone.


History

Coney Island Coney Island is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to ...
was the largest amusement area in the United States from about 1880 to
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, attracting several million visitors per year. At its height, it contained three amusement parks ( Luna Park, Dreamland, and Steeplechase Park) and many independent amusements. The Cyclone site was occupied by the Giant Racer from 1911 to 1926.


Early history

The success of the
Thunderbolt A thunderbolt or lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of lightning when accompanied by a loud thunderclap. In Indo-European mythology, the thunderbolt was identified with the 'Sky Father'; this association is also found in later Hel ...
and
Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...
roller coasters, which respectively opened in 1925 and 1926, led Irving and Jack Rosenthal to acquire land at the intersection of Surf Avenue and West 10th Street for a coaster of their own. The Rosenthal brothers leased a land lot for 19 years from the Coast Holding Company, a syndicate composed of "many prominent business and amusement men of Coney". With a $100,000 investment, they hired leading coaster designer Vernon Keenan to design a new ride. Harry C. Baker supervised the construction, while local companies provided the material, including steel contractor National Bridge Company and lumber contractor Cross, Austin, & Ireland. Its final cost was reportedly $146,000 to $175,000. When the Cyclone opened on June 26, 1927, a ride cost 25 cents (), except on Sundays and holidays, when the Rosenthals charged 35 cents. With the success of the Cyclone, the Rosenthals installed a similar ride at Golden City Park in
Canarsie, Brooklyn Canarsie ( ) is a mostly residential neighborhood in the southeastern portion of Brooklyn, New York City. Canarsie is bordered on the east by Fresh Creek Basin, East 108th Street, and Louisiana Avenue; on the north by Linden Boulevard; on th ...
, in 1928. In 1935, the Rosenthals took over the management of New Jersey's Palisades Park. The Cyclone was placed under the supervision of Christopher Feucht, a Coney Island entrepreneur who had built Drop the Dip in 1907. Feucht performed minor retracking work on the Cyclone The ride's first drop was reduced by in 1939. By that time, New York City parks commissioner
Robert Moses Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influentia ...
planned to clear a area inland of the
Riegelmann Boardwalk The Riegelmann Boardwalk (also known as the Coney Island Boardwalk) is a boardwalk on the southern shore of the Coney Island peninsula of Brooklyn in New York City, New York, United States. Opened in 1923, the boardwalk runs along the Atlantic ...
, which would have required the relocation or closure of the Cyclone. These plans were subsequently modified to preserve the amusement area there. The ride remained extremely popular. A person with
dwarfism Dwarfism is a condition of people and animals marked by unusually small size or short stature. In humans, it is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than , regardless of sex; the average adult height among people with dwarfism is . '' ...
would originally zap disembarking riders with an electric paddle, a practice which ended during the 1950s.


Decline

Sylvio and Al Pinto acquired the Cyclone in March 1959. By the 1960s, attendance at Coney Island was declining. Increased crime, insufficient parking, poor weather, and the post-World War II automotive boom were all cited as contributing factors in the decline. Coney Island's last remaining large theme park, Steeplechase Park, was closed in 1964 and subsequently demolished. The Cyclone was sold to the
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...
(NYC Parks) in 1965. Around that time, the New York City government wanted to construct an expansion to the
New York Aquarium The New York Aquarium is the oldest continually operating Public aquarium, aquarium in the United States, located on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It was founded at Castle Garden in Battery Park, Manhattan, i ...
, which had been constructed east of the Cyclone in 1954. The city began planning to acquire the Cyclone via
eminent domain Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...
in 1967. Its owners, East Coaster Corporation, unsuccessfully fought the city; they did minimal long-term maintenance, enough to keep the ride operating safely. The city bought the Cyclone for $1.2 million in 1969. The Cyclone was then operated under contract by East Coaster Corporation while the city worked with the New York Aquarium on plans to redevelop the site. There was a lack of long-term maintenance by the city, and the coaster soon received 101 safety violations. In 1972, aquarium officials announced that they would replace the Cyclone with a swamp display. Opponents of the plan organized a "Save the Cyclone" campaign to contest the proposed demolition of the coaster. This created a conflict between the aquarium, which supported the Cyclone's demolition, and the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce, which opposed it. The owners of the AstroWorld theme park in
Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
were considering buying the Coney Island Cyclone and moving it to Houston. This was eventually rejected as being too expensive, and AstroWorld's owners instead built a replica, which they branded as the Texas Cyclone. By 1974, city officials doubted their decision to purchase the Cyclone and considered leasing the coaster to a private operator. The proposed demolition of the Cyclone was seen as potentially disastrous to Coney Island's economy. The city changed its plans to dismantle the coaster and, in April 1975, invited sealed bids to lease operation of the ride. The owners of the Astroland amusement park won the lease, with a bid of $57,000 per year. After Astroland spent $60,000 to refurbish the Cyclone, the coaster reopened on July 3, 1975.


Preservation

During the 1986 season, insurance disputes forced the Cyclone to stay closed until July. The Cyclone remained in operation as a separate enterprise following the 2008 closure of Astroland and during the single operating season of Dreamland in 2009. The adjacent Luna Park took over management of the Cyclone in 2011 and began a major refurbishment of the coaster during the off-season. The ride had not been refurbished since the 1970s, and various planks and other elements of the structure had come loose. Although Luna Park officials said the Cyclone's maximum speed and layout would remain unchanged, roller coaster enthusiasts expressed concern that the refurbishment would make the ride experience smoother, saying that the Cyclone's roughness was a major characteristic of the ride. Luna Park hired
Great Coasters International Great Coasters International, Inc. (GCI or GCII) is a Sunbury, Pennsylvania-based roller coaster manufacturer which has created several award-winning rides since its formation in 1994. Starting in 2006 with Thunderbird (PowerPark), Thunderbird at ...
(GCI) to refurbish the roller coaster. The roller coaster remained largely intact after the surrounding area was flooded during
Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...
in late 2012. GCI completed its refurbishment of the Cyclone in 2016. The Cyclone did not operate during the 2020 season due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in New York City The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City was confirmed on March 1, 2020, though later research showed that the novel coronavirus had been circulating in New York City since January, with cases of community transmission confirme ...
; it reopened during the 2021 season.


Characteristics

The
wooden roller coaster A wooden roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its wooden track, which consists of running rails made of flat steel strips mounted on laminated wood. The support structure is also typically made of wood, but may also be ...
covers at 834 Surf Avenue and on West 10th Street, which is owned by NYC Parks. The former concession stands (built into the coaster's structure) was home to the
Coney Island History Project The Coney Island History Project, or CIHP, founded in 2004, is a 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to record and increase awareness of Coney Island's history. History The Coney Island History Project was foun ...
, which was moved to a space near the Wonder Wheel. A souvenir stand selling Cyclone-based shirts, hats, and on-ride photos remains. The Cyclone is considered an "irreplaceable" structure, since timber-supported coasters can no longer be built under modern New York City building codes. The track is long, including six fan turns and twelve drops. The ride's top speed is , and each ride takes about one minute and fifty seconds. The brown wooden track has red wood fencing alongside it and has a white structural framework, giving it a distinctive appearance. The steel framework is composed of vertical
I-beam An I-beam is any of various structural members with an - (serif capital letter 'I') or H-shaped cross section (geometry), cross-section. Technical terms for similar items include H-beam, I-profile, universal column (UC), w-beam (for "wide flang ...
s, horizontal
tie bar A tie clip (also tie slide, tie bar, or tie clasp) is a clothing accessory that is used to clip a tie to the underlying shirt A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body (from the neck to the waist). Originally an undergarment worn ...
s, and diagonal cross-bracing beams, connected by riveted steel plates. "Cyclone" appears in large, red, incandescent letters on the east and west sides of the lift hill; the letters on this sign were originally high. The coaster is surrounded by a fence. Before 2000, the Cyclone's 58.1-degree initial drop was the third-steepest drop of any wooden coaster in the world. , it has the ninth-steepest drop of any wood coaster worldwide. The Cyclone has three trains, each with three cars; one train can run at a time. Riders are arranged two across in four rows, for a total of 24 riders per train. The trains have bench seating (rather than individual seats for each passenger), and a single-position lap-bar restraint system which drops across the entire row. The seats do not have headrests. The Cyclone is a pay-per-use attraction, since each ride in Luna Park charges a number of credits for admission. Ride admission is also included in Luna Park's fixed-date and any-date passes. "Bonus credits" accumulated by the purchase of ride credits cannot be used for the coaster. The station is accessed from the ticket booth on West 10th Street. It consists of two wooden platforms, one on each side of the track; the outer (western) platform is for riders who are boarding, and the inner (eastern) platform is for exiting riders. The station is under a gable roof canopy supported by a steel arch frame, which has segmented arcades along its sides. A mechanical room is partly underneath, and next to, the platform. Outside the station is a vertical sign with incandescent letters spelling "CYCLONE", which measures high.


Ride experience

The train leaves the station heading north and immediately turns right at an almost 180-degree angle, which leads to an
lift hill A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from t ...
. It then moves over the first 58.1-degree drop; as the train reaches the bottom of the drop, it comes close to the track above for a headchopper effect. The train then ascends into the first high-speed U-turn to the left, descending again beneath the lift hill and rising to the second U-turn to the right. It descends parallel to the lift hill, enters a camelback hill and rises to a smaller banked right U-turn, where it dives under the first high-speed curve. After the third U-turn, the train enters a second camelback hill with a fan turn and a smaller airtime section as it approaches a fourth U-turn to the right. The train hops several times more, paralleling the second drop, before entering a final right curve. It drops slightly, ascends into a tunnel with a small left fan turn, and enters a
brake run A brake run on a roller coaster is any section of track that utilizes some form of brakes to slow or stop a roller coaster train. There are various types of braking methods employed on roller coasters, including friction brakes, skid brakes, a ...
just before re-entering the station.


Incidents

At least three people have died after riding the Cyclone. On May 26, 1985, a 29-year-old man was killed when he stood up and hit his head on a crossbeam. On August 23, 1988, a 26-year-old maintenance worker, riding in the back seat during his lunch break, was killed after falling from the coaster and landing on a crossbeam of a lower section of track. The ride was closed after the incident but reopened a day later after safety inspectors concluded it was safe. Keith Shirasawa, a 53-year-old man, suffered several crushed
vertebrae Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal ...
in his neck while riding the Cyclone on July 31, 2007, and died four days later due to complications during surgery. On June 12, 2008, a woman rode the Cyclone and later claimed that she had been seriously injured due to the ride. She was awarded $1.5 million in damages in 2015, despite being found partly at fault. On August 22, 2024, the Cyclone was halted mid-ride upon discovery of a crack in the lift hill chain's sprocket, forcing the evacuation of several riders without injury. The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) subsequently issued Luna Park two violations for failure to maintain the ride and immediately notify the DOB of the incident. The Cyclone was repaired and reopened two weeks later on September 7.


Notable riders and records

Aviator
Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York (state), New York to Paris, a distance of . His aircra ...
was said to have ridden the Cyclone two years after it opened, and reportedly called the experience "greater than flying an airplane at top speed". Emilio Franco, a mute coal miner with aphonia, visited Coney Island in 1948 and reportedly screamed while going down the Cyclone's first drop. Franco also reportedly said, "I feel sick" as his train returned to the station. According to multiple accounts, he fainted after realizing that he had spoken. Although one version of the story reported that Franco had been mute since birth, a contemporary ''New York Times'' story said that he had been mute for five years. Michael Boodley set a record in 1975 for the most consecutive trips on the Cyclone, riding it 1,001 times over a 45-hour period. Nineteen-year-old Richard Rodriguez broke the record from August 18 to 22, 1977, riding the coaster for 104 hours. He took short bathroom breaks between rides, eating hot dogs and M&Ms and drinking shakes during the ride itself. Rodriguez broke his own record for the longest roller-coaster marathon in 2007, riding for 405 hours and 40 minutes at
Blackpool Pleasure Beach Pleasure Beach Resort, best known by its former name Blackpool Pleasure Beach, is an amusement park situated on Blackpool's South Shore, in the county of Lancashire, North West England. The park was founded in 1896 by A. W. G. Bean and his p ...
in the United Kingdom. In 2009, the Coney Island History Project gave an award to Howie Lipstein, who had ridden the Cyclone for 50 consecutive years. In 2019, Luna Park honored him for riding for 60 consecutive years.


Impact

The Cyclone was named a city landmark in 1988 and a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
in 1991. An ACE Coaster Classic and Coaster Landmark, it inspired the name of the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team, which plays at nearby
Maimonides Park Maimonides Park (formerly MCU Park and KeySpan Park) is a minor league baseball stadium on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. The home team and primary tenant is the New York Mets-affiliated ...
.


Replicas

The popularity of the Cyclone has inspired eight replica coasters that share (or mirror) a similar layout. Four replicas of the Cyclone were built at
Six Flags Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It was formed on July 2, 2024, following a merger between longtime rivals Cedar Fair and the former Six Flags ...
parks:
Viper Vipers are snakes in the family Viperidae, found in most parts of the world, except for Antarctica, Australia, Hawaii, Madagascar, New Zealand, Ireland, and various other isolated islands. They are venomous and have long (relative to non-vipe ...
at
Six Flags Great America Six Flags Great America is a amusement park, theme park located in Gurnee, Illinois, within the northern Chicago metropolitan area. The theme park originally opened as Marriott's Great America on May 29, 1976, as one of two theme parks built ...
; Psyclone at
Six Flags Magic Mountain Six Flags Magic Mountain, formerly known and colloquially referred to as simply Magic Mountain, is a amusement park located in Valencia, California, northwest of downtown Los Angeles. It opened on May 29, 1971, as a development of the Newha ...
; the Texas Cyclone at Six Flags AstroWorld; and the Georgia Cyclone at Six Flags Over Georgia. Of these, only Viper is still operational in its original state. International replicas include Bandit at
Movie Park Germany Movie Park Germany is a theme park in Bottrop-Kirchhellen in western Germany, north of Düsseldorf, with an area of . It consists of 7 areas based on movies and TV series. Nearby the park are several film studios. History The park originall ...
; the defunct White Canyon at Yomiuriland in Japan, and the defunct Aska at Japan's
Nara Dreamland , or just simply Dreamland, was a theme park near Nara, Japan, heavily inspired by Disneyland in California. It opened in 1961 and was in continuous operation until its permanent closure in 2006 as a result of falling attendance due to the overwhe ...
. The Riverside Cyclone, built in 1983 at Riverside Amusement Park (now
Six Flags New England Six Flags New England, formerly known as Gallup's Grove (1870–1886), Riverside Grove (1887–1911), Riverside Park (1912–1995) and Riverside: The Great Escape (1996–1999), is an amusement park located in Agawam, Massachusetts. Opening in ...
), was inspired by the design of the Coney Island Cyclone. Later known as the Cyclone, it was closed in 2014 and replaced with Wicked Cyclone, constructed by Rocky Mountain Construction. Despite the shared name, the Riverside Cyclone was not a replica of the Coney Island Cyclone.


Rankings


See also

*
Amusement rides on the National Register of Historic Places List of amusement rides, Amusement rides currently and previously listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) are located throughout the United States. These ride listings consist mainly of 54 carousels (49 listed and 5 deli ...
* List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Brooklyn *
National Register of Historic Places listings in Brooklyn The following properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Brooklyn. This is intended to be a complete list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the New York City borough o ...


Notes


References


External links

*
Cyclone HistoryOral History of the Cyclone collected by the Coney Island History Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coney Island Cyclone Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in New York City Coney Island National Register of Historic Places in Brooklyn New York City Designated Landmarks in Brooklyn Roller coasters in New York (state) Roller coasters introduced in 1927 Wooden roller coasters 1927 establishments in New York City