Cyclone
Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York
Astroland | In the period since it first opened on June 26, 1927, the Cyclone has emerged as the outdoor amusement industry\'s most famous, most influential, and most copied individual ride. Brothers Jack and Irving Rosenthal commissioned Vernan Keenan to design, and Harry C. Baker to construct, a monumental wooden-tracked twister, which was forced to be exceptionally tight and steep because of the small ground space that was available to them. Construction then began on a site historically significant in the world of roller coasters -- the Cyclone occupies the space, which contained the world\'s very first roller coaster, LaMarcus A. Thompson\'s Switchback Railway, as well as the world\'s first successful looping roller coaster, Loop The Loop. With power supplied by the Eisenberg Brothers of Brooklyn, signs from Menheimer and Weiss of New York City, steel from the National Bridge Company, also of New York City, and lumber from Cross, Austin & Ireland, located in Long Island City, the Cyclone quickly became Coney Island\'s number one attraction, a status it maintains to this day. |