Did you know that you have winter weather to thank for the existence of roller coasters today? Yes, the ski slope is more than just the place you go before you get an air cast. It’s also the accidental inception of theme park thrill rides.
Tidbits like this permeate the history of the modern roller coaster. When you think of the architectural marvels in place today, you’re likely to focus on the metal alloys and feats of engineering that brought your favorite coaster into existence. A lot had to happen throughout the past two centuries for roller coasters to reach their current form today, though.
Numerous Guinea pigs, some of them unwilling, had to fall and/or slide down some of the steepest inclines on the planet in order for Space Mountain to become viable. They had to break more bones than your average X-Games participant for the sake of knowledge. Yes, innovation requires sacrifice, and the early days of roller coasters were more about trips to the hospital than the advancement of science.
Over time, park curators grew smarter. They learned from the litany of shattered femurs and separated shoulders. In between concussions, victims of early attempts at thrill rides passed down their knowledge to these more cautious observers. The end result is that each iteration of what we now call the roller coaster streamlined and enhanced the process.
Riders outgrew those prototype models that were the equivalent of Slip ‘n’ Slides on ice. They built a better coaster cart and tracks with less friction to propel adrenaline junkies down the path. The 20th century left behind the odd choices of noted coaster junkie Catherine the Great (no, really) and advanced the premises of the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway into the first Coney Island roller coaster. All it cost those original theme park tourists was a nickel to ride.
From there, a lot of what you know of roller coasters today became a reality. Early computers empowered visionary engineers to build a better version of the concept, a Scenic Railway that could sweep the passenger away into a fictional realm. A few plucky pioneers led the charge in elevating roller coasters from a cheap thrill into something more stable and satisfying.
No matter how much of a coaster enthusiast you are, the history of this thrill ride may shock you. In this article, we’ll trace its roots back to the 17th century as an ice ride, debate which country has a rightful claim to the world’s first roller coaster, and track the evolution from ice-dependent sled into a gravity-fueled coal mining train cart. Then, we’ll look at how a Coney Island update changed everything as wood roller coasters became the industry standard. Finally, we’ll examine how Walt Disney and the team at Arrow Development revolutionized the industry by crafting the world’s first steel coaster, The Matterhorn, the ride that closed the circle from sledding to…sledding. Buckle up your safety harness! You’re in for a thrilling ride through the history of the roller coaster!
Russian Mountains aren’t mountains at all
Image: Laurel Fan, Flickr (license)
Thrill rides have come a long way since their humble beginnings. The proof of this lies in the origin story of the roller coaster. What Russian citizens in the 17th century called roller coasters are what you call sleigh rides today. The explanation for the Russian Mountains as a thrill is obvious. Russia is home to the North Pole of Cold, the place where the lowest temperature on record occurred. Ice is the country’s most abundant resource.
Some enterprising predecessors of today’s adrenaline junkie culture learned that they could pass the cold winter’s months in a thrilling way. All they had to do was improve the sled ride. How does one do that? They increased velocity.
Image: Verity Cridland, Flickr (license)
If you grew up in a region that has snow, you did this as a child as well. All the kids in the area know where the tallest hills are, the ones that are best sledding. On snow days, they head over to these areas and take turns zooming down the hill.
The same premise applied in the 17th century. Russians had an unfair advantage, though. They had so much cold weather that they could maximize each sled ride. They’d manufacture entire hills of ice, packing the snow underneath for support. The ice would provide the optimal velocity for a sled ride into oblivion.
As is the case with most adrenaline junkies, however, Russian Mountains fans eventually decided that the regular version of sledding wasn’t enough. They needed more. These enterprising coaster fanatics enjoyed one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of our industry. Their epiphany was that they could build a supporting lumber track for their sled path. Yes, almost five centuries ago, a basic version of roller coaster tracks existed. Their sole purpose was to increase the velocity of sleds.
The premise worked similarly to how you board a roller coaster today. Russians would climb up a set of stairs to the top of the tracks, the exit point for a grand adventure down the ice slope. In many instances, two tracks were built together. That allowed the rider to exit one track and immediately have access to the other.
Image: archer 10 (Dennis) 80M Views, Flickr (license)
Over time, the tracks of Russian Mountains also evolved. A straight line is fun, but twists and turns are even better. Every coaster enthusiast knows this, but it was something of a revelation in the 1600s and 1700s. Even a 30-degree turn seemed like an amazing improvement at the time.
Designers built new coaster tracks that provided riders with an unprecedented level of enjoyment. The new tracks were as much as five stories high and up to three hundred feet, providing exceptional ride length relative to early versions of Russian Mountains. The 17th century sled rides were so accomplished that you still a variant of them today. Many ski slopes offer the same type of downward track sled ride. Oddly, water parks do as well, although theirs substitute water pressure for the slippery nature of ice.
The reason why this invention has stood the test of time involves one royal fan. History has recounted many tales of Catherine the Great, one of the most storied female rulers of all time. The luminary who led her country through the Russian Enlightenment, Catherine II had a few eclectic hobbies, and was one of the strongest proponents of Russian Mountains, commissioning some of her most inventive citizens to build a better ride. Catherine the Great’s passion for Russian Mountains in combination with her people’s passion to please her led to something shockingly close to a modern roller coaster track.
Russia, France, and the United States go to war…over wheels
Image: Luu, Wikimedia Commons (license)
The next huge advance in the roller coaster industry is all thanks to the French. At least, that’s what they’d have you believe. The same is true of Russia, while the United States has an attraction of their own that can prove their point.
The debate is simple. Which country was the first to add wheels to a sled? Yes, that seems like an innocuous topic, but it’s also the holy grail of roller coaster history. The first person to accomplish this simple addition, putting wheels on a sled, is also the one who invented the roller coaster cart. And the roller coaster itself. You can understand why each country is so emphatic that they deserve the credit.
Russia’s argument is the most organic one. They maintain that it was a natural step for one of their innovators to take an invention they’d already created and enhance it. After all, most of what I just described in the past section stems from precisely this process. As is the case with those irrefutable claims, this one involves Catherine the Great.
Allegedly, one of her minions, James the Third delivered an edict to the people of Saint Petersburg. He wanted a new iteration of the Russian Mountains to show his ruler. She was looking for something new and exciting after literally hundreds of sled rides on the original version. This might be historically inaccurate, though. Catherine the Great was 55 at the time, which is like 75 today. She was either right at or just beyond the average life expectancy of the era. Imagine your grandmother on Fury 325, and you can form your own opinions on the plausibility of this scenario.
Assuming the entire story isn’t apocryphal, one of the royal subjects developed a roller coaster cart at the Gardens of Oranienbaum in Saint Petersburg, which was the mecca of Russian Mountains tracks. It was a carriage rather than how conventional coasters look today, and it bounced over the hills awkwardly. That’s probably why it didn’t find immediate success. Allegedly, this event transpired in 1784, which is important since the French claim didn’t happen until 1817. The American version, the quantifiable one, also didn’t arrive until 1827, so the Russians do have the best claim to the world’s first roller coaster.
The Wheels of Belleville
Image: Wikimedia Commons (license)
Why does France disagree? The honest answer is that they probably want to have a claim to such a historic event. Also, they didn’t have a thrill-seeking granny begging for energy drinks and a daredevil ride experience as their claim of authenticity. In Russia, grandmothers run over reindeer. I now offer my apologies to Yakov Smirnoff haters, whose numbers should be legion.
Anyway, the more diplomatic explanation is that even if Russia did put wheels on a sled first, what they created wasn’t truly a roller coaster in any realistic sense. In 1817, France improved on the premise with a pair of their own inventions.
The first of them, Les Montagnes Russes à Belleville, doesn’t receive as much recognition. Even its name hints at its derivation. It basically translates as The Russian Mountains of Belleville, which sounds like a Sylvain Chomet movie rather than a roller coaster innovation. This is presumably why the French focus on The Promenades Aeriennes in Parc Baujon when they make their claim.
The Promenades Aeriennes featured a symmetrical design that looked almost like the infinity sign. That’s a sideways 8 if you’re not into math. The difference is that rather than a curve in the middle, it had a straight line down the center of the track. Roller coaster enthusiasts are already putting two and two together on this one.
Image: Cedar Fair
Yes, the two tracks operated independently but simultaneously. Yes, it’s a type of ride design still in place today. If you’ve ever been on a coaster like Gemini at Cedar Point, you know the deal. The French version wasn’t quite that polished, as the coaster carts only passed at a single point at the bottom, at which point each one climbed a lift hill. So, there was a bit of a race at the end where the riders could view the adjoining track. That great idea in coaster design you’ve loved since you were a kid is three centuries old.
Amusingly, the better argument for the French inventing the roller coaster is at Les Montagnes Russes à Belleville. It was there that a true advance in coaster design happened. Some enterprising Frenchman had the marvelous idea to tether the cart to the track. Russian Mountains always had a chance for the sled to come off the ground, which any six-year-old will tell you is a lot of the fun. To maximize velocity, however, keeping the cart attached is much better.
The Belleville ride achieved this by slotting grooves into the tracks. Then, it used the axles of the wheels to roll through these grooves. Through this methodology, the coaster cart could maintain its speed while staying under control and following the path. Ride engineers and enthusiasts today know this same strategy by a different term, underfriction. Some ingenious French citizen developed the premise three centuries ago yet they received no recognition for their profound discovery.
USA! USA!
Image: Disney
While all three of roller coaster carts are verifiable and thereby valid claims of a sort, an American still claims the honorary title of Father of the Roller Coaster. His name is LaMarcus Adna Thompson, and he was a wildly successful businessman. In lingerie sales. The history of the roller coaster includes some truly bizarre anecdotes.
Thompson proved at a young age that he owned an inventive mind. When he reached adulthood, he set up shop in Elkhart, Indiana. It was here that he developed an amazing device that could manufacture women’s hosiery without damaging the products. Since hosiery tears so easily, early machines struggled to mass produce nylons. Thompson’s system vastly enhanced the output of products relative to raw materials used. He earned a fortune selling stockings, but years spent in a small manufacturing facility degraded his health. Thompson found himself forced away from the industry that had made him independently wealthy.
With newfound riches and ample free time, Thompson sought a new hobby. He discovered inspiration during a vacation to Pennsylvania. In the eastern portion of the state, he stumbled on a local tourist attraction that would become his obsession. Before we evaluate his impact on the industry, however, the Pennsylvania ride deserves its own discussion.
When is a runaway train called a roller coaster?
Image: Wikimedia Commons (license)
The answer to this riddle is when it’s called the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway instead. If you’re a coaster enthusiast, you’ve likely heard of this vehicle before. It’s unmistakably the ancestor of the modern roller coaster. The difference is that coasters today don’t include a side of black lung stemming from a ride alongside a ton of coal.
The explanation for the unusual circumstance of a trip down the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway involves its stated purpose. At first, it was just a train crisscrossing Pisgah Mountain, one of the Appalachian Mountains in that part of Pennsylvania. During the early 19th century, pioneers discovered a massive coal deposit in this region. The problem they faced was how to mine it effectively. Pisgah Mountain has an elevation of 1,557 feet, which is problematic enough in the 21st century. Two hundred years ago, the idea of harvesting those natural resources bordered on impossible.
The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company embraced this challenge, and the fruits of their labor sustained the company for more than a century. They laid tracks for nine miles of downhill tracks from the summit of Pisgah Mountain to the more serviceable area below. Gravity was their friend in this endeavor. If you put any wheeled vehicle on the top of a hill then give it a push, it’ll slide down at a steadily increasing pace. If you put a ton of coal on the vehicle, it goes much, much faster. You can see where I’m going with this.
The place at the bottom of the mountain, the ultimate destination of all the mined coal, was then known as Mauch Chunk. The workers here spent their days watching a runaway train zoom downhill for 14 kilometers before semi-gracefully stopping in town. The path the train traveled was on rails, so it was safe (ish). The day laborers discovered that they could pass the time in much more entertaining fashion if they hopped a ride from the top of the mountain down to Mauch Chunk. It quickly became the thing to do in town. The locals called it the Gravity Train, and the path it followed was the Gravity Road.
The specs of the train were modest, but the seeds of a roller coaster existed. The Gravity Train became so popular with tourists that an entire line of railway closed for mining purposes. It became a permanent attraction that built up quite the reputation on the East Coast. By the 1850s, guests were willing to pay between 10 and 50 cents to ride, depending on the season and popularity of the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway. Yes, surge pricing has been around more than 160 years.
Fathering the modern roller coaster
Image: Disney
Imagine Thompson’s excitement when he reached Mauch Chunk. His life’s work was no longer possible, and he was actively seeking new inspiration. There, in a coal miner’s town, he stumbled across a nascent technology brimming with possibilities. A man of science and invention, he quickly deduced that this idea would prove even more popular in a larger metropolitan area. All he needed to do was find a way to craft a man-made mountain in a small space.
While the name is misspelled on the patent, you can take a look at what he invented right here. You’ll want to turn the first image sideways to make sense of it. What you’re studying is the world’s first (or, at the very least, most important) roller coaster patent. His application begins thusly:
“Be it known that I, LA MARoUs A. THOMP- soN, of South Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Roller Coasting Structure, of which the fol-lowing is a full. clear, and exact description, that will enable others to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings-forming a part of this specification.
“This invention relates to an improved coast ing structure to be used as a means of pleasure and-amusement; and it consists of certain novel featuresin the construction and arrangement, as will be hereinafter more fully set forth and claimed.” (sic)
Image: Wikimedia Commons (license)
He closes the application with the most important details:
“Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-
“1. In a coasting structure, the combination, with the tracks B B, running parallel with each other and having the starting and terminal stations at the same elevation, of the switch-tracks E F, whereby the car reaching the terminus on the outgoing track is transing trest1e-w0rk C and the platform (1 and ferred to the return-track and back again to d of the same height, substantially as de the first track for another trip, substantially scribed. as described.
“2. In a coasting structure, the combination, with two parallel tracks or road-beds having undulating grades or planes, of the support LA MARCUS A. THOMPSON. Vitn esses:”
What you can draw from this information is that A) a master inventor of hosiery machines and roller coasters doesn’t bother to master spelling and punctuation and B) Thompson was so confident in the originality of his man-made structure that he patented it to prevent copycats from benefiting from his sweat of brow.
That leads to an important caveat. A gentleman named John G. Taylor also patented something that could be loosely described as roller coaster technology in 1872. The Baltimore resident also earned one patent for his work, but he never received the same credit as Thompson. That’s presumably because Thompson wound up with roughly 30 patents related to roller coasters, as he constantly sought to perfect the process. Meanwhile, Taylor only gained a single one, patent 128,674, which was for an “Improvement in inclined railways.” Engineers who have studied Taylor’s patent vs. those of Thompson rightfully consider what Thompson did critical to the modern roller coaster.
The other key aspect of the conversation is that no confirmed evidence exists that Taylor ever built the coaster for which he received a patent. Some Baltimore newspapers reference it, but the only picture of something that could qualify lacks a confirmation date. It’s entirely possible that Taylor built a coaster that precedes the famous one at Coney Island by a decade or more. There’s just no evidence of it. That’s why Taylor is anecdote in discussions of roller coaster history while Thompson is revered as the founding father of the industry.
Welcome to Coney Island!
Image: edenpictures, Flickr (license)
1884 was the most important year for roller coaster innovation prior to the opening of Disneyland. That year, Thompson unveiled the Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway at Coney Island. It was an immediate blockbuster success. Part of the explanation was location. While Coney Island only claims a population of 25,000 even today, it is readily accessible from all boroughs of New York City. Even during the 1880s, 1.2 million people lived in the city. It was already the most populous one in the United States. Putting the world’s first roller coaster nearby was one of the best business moves in the history of amusement parks.
While eastern Pennsylvania coal mining towns don’t have a lot of national status, a ride like the Switchback Railway at Coney Island immediately garners international headlines. The 19th century equivalent of theme park tourists flocked to this new sensation, paying a nickel a ride. Thompson once reported that he earned $600 daily during the early years of the Switchback Railway. That’s the equivalent of $14,634 today. The marvel here is that at a nickel a ride, we’re discussing 12,000 customers per day. And this wasn’t a ride that had the massive throughput you’d see at a theme park attraction today. The demand for the Switchback Railway was off the charts.
Thompson had followed up his success in the hosiery industry with what we’d now describe as a five million dollar annual revenue stream. From a single ride. Soon afterward, the inventor began duplicating his coaster track at other locations across the country. Within four years, 50 different Switchback Railways existed. He understood that competitors were quickly copying his lucrative idea. By building his own constructs, he could ward off imitators before they gained a foothold in the coaster industry he effectively created. In addition to being the Father of the Roller Coaster, Thompson also possessed business acumen on a par with Walt Disney. The two men were kindred spirits separated by two generations.
What made the Switchback Railway so innovative? That’s the critical part of this discussion. We’ve learned how ice slopes turned into railways and how sleds turned into roller coaster carts. The parallel from Russian Mountains to the Switchback Railway goes beyond these terms, though. Thompson used the premise as a baseline for his attempt. He built a pair of symmetrical courses next to one another. From a side view, they wouldn’t look the same since the start of one was the end of the other and vice versa. They were structurally identical, though.
Image: Wikimedia Commons (license)
Where his concept differentiated itself from Russian Mountains was in the addition of hills. You know them today as air-time, but that’s a comically extravagant description of what the Switchback Railway offered. We’re talking about a very slight raise in elevation before an almost immediate decline. It’s like when your car travels over a hill. You go up and then down almost instantly. This bit of non-linear riding qualified as a major breakthrough in the 19th century.
The speed of the Switchback Railway was so mild that you likely jog faster. It went six miles per hour for roughly 600 feet. The start of the ride began 50 feet in the air, requiring another ladder climb to get to the coaster cart. Again, it was similar to the Russian Mountains save for the fact that all motion was man-made rather than ice-based. He constructed a roller coaster cart on wheels that rode the track layout to the bottom then circled around, the switchback part of the railway.
Since the earliest known roller coaster didn’t require ice, it could operate all year, differentiating it from Russian Mountains. It also didn’t need an additional incline to move like the sled-based iterations of the concept. While it was a gravity ride in both design and name, the Switchback Railway was the first coaster of its kind to deliver a guided trip. The tracks determined the course, and the wheels kept the cart on the path. It was in all ways what we have come to consider a roller coaster, which is why Americans have a good claim as the originators of the modern version.
Since Thompson so carefully mimicked the themes and ideas of Russian Mountains, however, they too have a valid claim. Without their ideas – and the support of Catherine the Great – the Father of the Roller Coaster never would have built the Switchback Railway. Then again, just to mess with your head a bit, the Russian phrase for roller coaster translates as American Mountains, so the terms the countries use seem stubbornly chosen to cause the highest level of confusion.
Another Coney Island classic
Image: jeffpearce, Flickr (license)
The first phase of the roller coaster design war transpired at the turn of the 20th century. By this point, it was an international sensation. Developers tried to one up one another by adding faster speeds and more bumps. Both the French and Americans crafted vertical loops in their tracks, which sounds like fun in theory. These early versions suffered from reckless engineering, the type we’d call carnival quality today. On multiple occasions, riders fell out of the coaster cart during a loop. Ride harnesses were barely more than safety straps at the time, assuming any sort of precautionary gear was in place. What mattered most to coaster constructors was attendance, something that hasn’t changed much over time.
Jack and Irving Rosenthal noted that the strongest coaster sales remained in Coney Island, presumably because the tourist area offered the original and catered to a huge metropolitan area. They invested $100,000 in 1925, the equivalent of $1.4 million today, to build a more modern take on the coaster premise. By then, the Switchback Railway was 40 years old…and not their property. They needed a thrill ride of their own.
Their new roller coaster ran way over budget, more than 75 percent by some estimates, but the end result was worth it. The ride known as The Cyclone became one of the all-time staples of amusement parks. When it debuted, this ride cost a quarter, and guests happily spent that amount. They still do. Almost a century later, the price is a factor of 40 larger. That’s roughly triple its inflationary rate. Despite the stiff spike in cost, guests at Luna Park happily pay to take their place in history as one of the tens of millions of humans who have ridden The Cyclone.
What makes the ride so special? Realistically, it’s the sense of history. Even though it’s only 85-feet high, it does stretch 2,640 feet, giving it a ride time of almost two minutes. It offers a 60-degree drop and can reach 60 miles per hour today, quite bit more than its original version. As the single most popular wooden roller coaster of the first half of the 20th century, The Cyclone stands out for its heritage more than its specs, though.
The bridge to modernity travels through the Matterhorn
Image: Castles, Capes & Clones, Flickr (license)
The history of the roller coaster comes full circle with the Matterhorn Bobsleds, which opened to the public in 1959. It was the first steel coaster, which is reason enough to mention it. What’s more interesting, however, is what the Matterhorn represents. The genesis of the roller coasters we enjoy today was Russian Mountains. And these constructs were little more than glorified sleds placed on controllable paths.
What’s the Matterhorn? It’s a steel roller coaster that simulates the experience of sledding down the side of a mountain. In other words, it’s a metallic Imagineering recreation of Russian Mountains. Your mind should be blown right about now.
Whether Walt Disney appreciated the symmetry of his creation is up for debate. As you will learn in this description of the secrets of the Matterhorn, Uncle Walt loved the incongruity of theme park tourists enjoying a snow day at a southern California theme park. The weather would never allow that, so ride designers had to bring the snow each day. They also needed an attraction that could outdo standard roller coasters of the day.
Since a roller coaster arms race had been ongoing for decades when Disneyland opened, their version had to blow the competition out of the water. Otherwise, critics would lambast Imagineers for delivering something ordinary. This was the driving impetus in many of their technological innovations of the 1950s and 1960s. The press forced Imagineers to compete against their own reputation and legacy more than against other ride developers.
Image: Castles, Capes & Clones, Flickr (license)
The idea of the Matterhorn came with a conceptual crisis. Unlike conventional sled rides, bobsleds twist and turn a great deal. When a person jumps on a sled, they head straight down unless something goes horribly awry (and I have the stitches to prove it). The bobsleds made famous at the Winter Olympics twist through hairpin turns that a basic sled couldn’t match. Disney’s vision for the Matterhorn exceeded any possible implementation of Russian Mountains.
Such innovation brought technical challenges. Regular wood tracks don’t bend the way that Disney needed. Also, they didn’t provide the freedom of movement a bobsled required. The ride cart needs to slosh around the turns. Otherwise, the rider will understand that they’re on a rail system, ruining the illusion of the experience, a huge no-no at Disney, even during the 1950s.
Uncle Walt had already conceded on one of his early demands. He’d wanted actual snow at the Matterhorn, a functional impossibility. He wasn’t about to capitulate on a quality bobsled simulation, too. Disney checked in with his friends at Arrow Development, similarly inventive ride designers that had built six of the opening day rides at Disneyland. He trusted them to provide an honest opinion about the feasibility of his idea while hopefully providing quality input on how to construct it.
The finest minds in theme park ride development put their heads together and came up with something revolutionary. They recognized that steel could bend in ways that exceeded wood. Thanks to some deft metallurgy, the two companies crafted the world’s first tubular steel track. It could twist and turn at angles that were functionally impossible with wood. The continuous track allowed multiple coaster carts to ride on the track at once, and the tubular nature of the tracks meant that the carts could zoom past one another at key points, a feature that remains a highlight of the Matterhorn to this day.
Image: EmilyGrace Photography, Flickr (license)
The introduction of steel in coaster development meant everything to the modernization of track design. The massive heights and extreme velocities of Gigacoasters are only viable now thanks to steel alloys that conduct heat quicker and more reliably. More importantly to Disney, the bobsled simulation was extremely authentic since the curved track felt just like an actual bobsled course. Riders could easily imagine themselves participating at the Winter Olympics as they streaked down the steel track. It’s one of the greatest attractions in the history of Disney. More importantly, it’s the roller coaster innovation that led directly to extreme velocity, maximum G’s, constant airtime thrill rides that adrenaline junkies adore today.
The most amazing part of the evolution of the modern roller coaster is how circular it is. Russians started with sleds that they sped down icy slopes. Then, they added tracks to maximize velocity. Over the centuries that followed, other inventors took those same ideas and meshed them with other innovations such as the train. They also threw in some gravity for good measure to deliver a better rush for their guests.
Afterward, a savvy American lingerie manufacturer developed a cart with wheels and a man-made track that didn’t need to ice to operate. His version of the wood roller coaster became the standard that dominated the industry for several decades until a different ride in the same Coney Island area took that title.
Some 30 years later, Walt Disney and his Imagineers decided that they wanted to construct their own roller coaster, but they didn’t want it to seem like anything already in existence. They chose a new material for their tracks, and steel became the new standard in the industry. But how Disney used it is the most beautiful part. They chose to build…a mountain sled ride. If Catherine the Great were alive today, the Matterhorn at Disneyland would remind her of home. That’s because it’s the Russian Mountains attraction that Russians never made.
