Journey with us through rollercoaster history to learn about the first rides and how they compare to today's.

Rollercoasters are nothing new. People have been riding them for centuries, with the very first rollercoasters being constructed in 17th-century Russia.

Want to swot up on your rollercoaster knowledge? Join us for a journey through the world of rollercoasters. We’ll discover what the first rollercoasters were like and how they developed into the rides we know and love today.

Ice slide inspiration

Many consider 17th-century Russian ice slides as the first source of inspiration for the rollercoasters we know today.

These ice slides were made with a wooden frame topped with thick sheets of ice. Some were pretty tall, reaching 21 metres. They were usually open to the public and some were decorated ornately to please the upper classes, who were also partial to a good slide.

The technology at this point wasn’t too advanced, as you can imagine. Riders would shoot down the slides on wooden sleds or ice blocks, crashing into piles of sand to stop.

From Russia with love

When was ice replaced with rolling carts? Nobody seems to be quite sure.

One story says that it happened when French businessmen wanted to bring the ice slide home. However, France is much warmer than Russia – and so the ice kept melting.

To get around this issue, the French replaced the ice with waxed slides. Eventually, they upgraded the sleds with wheels too.

How the rollercoaster developed

The first rollercoaster that had trains attached to its track was Les Montagnes Russes à Belleville, which translates to “Russian Mountains of Belville”. It was built in Paris in 1812.

America takes on the rollercoaster

The first American rollercoaster started life in eastern Pennsylvania as a coal mining train manned (or is it “muled”?) by donkeys.

They were herded into the trains – along with coal – and coasted down from the top of Mount Pisgah. When they reached the water at the bottom, they deposited their loads and then pulled the train back up to do it all over again.

The mules must have gone on strike because, by 1844, the Mauch Chunk railway had a return track. This new system was named the Switchback.

As time went by and the mines grew larger, the Switchback train was retired from mine work and given a second chance in the tourism industry.

Passengers paid their nickel and hopped on board The Scenic Railway, as it was now known due to the panoramic views it offered. They then whizzed around the track, starting at a humble five miles per hour and reaching an impressive 65 miles per hour.

The great rollercoaster revolution

Inspired by the Pennsylvania railway, rollercoaster designers began racing to design bigger and better rollercoasters.

These early coasters were powered by gravity – and thus were known as “gravity pleasure rides”.

One early example was the Switchback Railway, built by Sunday school teacher LaMarcus Adna Thompson on Coney Island in 1884.

The ride proved very popular – and its success spurred Thompson to build almost 50 rollercoasters in locations across the US and Europe.

Some of his rides plunged riders into dark, scary tunnels – much like some rollercoasters do today.

Taking rollercoasters into the 20th century

As America entered the 1920s, the country was home to around 1,500 rollercoasters.

Now there were steeper tracks, faster speeds, spirals and figures of eights. Wooden rollercoasters clattered and jerked their riders around, provoking gleeful thrills that kept fun-seekers coming back for more.

One of the wildest wooden rollercoasters was the Cyclone at Crystal Beach Park in Canada. It was so scary that it was staffed with its own registered nurse.

Walt Disney brought the steel

Rollercoasters seemed to lose some popularity in the years that followed their heyday in the 1920s.

But that all began to change in 1959. That year, the Arrow Development Company built the Matterhorn Bobsled ride for Disneyland – and they made it with steel.

Using steel had its benefits. Steel rollercoasters were quieter, smoother and much less intimidating than their wooden predecessors.

Clean and wholesome – just like Disney movies. The rollercoaster was experiencing a shiny new glow-up.

Enter the corkscrew

Developing a loop that felt smooth to ride took a while.

In 1975, the Arrow Development Company explored a new corkscrew design. This used special wheels that hugged the track and would stop the coaster carts from falling if the ride came to an unexpected stop.

Once it had mastered the loop down and got the G forces just right, the company became the proud inventor of the first corkscrew rollercoaster that looped riders around three times consecutively.

People loved it and visited it frequently at its home in Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park.