Rough Riders (rollercoaster)

Rough Riders was a rollercoaster built by W.F. Mangels and located on Coney Island's Bowery from 1907 to 1916. It was known for its many accidents which led it to its closure.

History

W.F. Mangels installed his Rough Riders rollercoaster on the Bowery and Jones Walk in 1907. The ride was a “switchback railway,” similar to Coney Island’s first rollercoaster from 1884. The ride began at the top of a hill, not at ground level, and reached a chained lifthill later on in the ride. It was a “third rail electric” rollercoaster, in which the ride’s operator turned off all electric power after the initial ascent. However, when the mechanism broke and the operator failed to turn it off, it caused the ride to go at speeds too fast and after the cars overturned, three people died at 2 P.M. on June 22, 1910. When the train derailed and caused three more deaths in 1915, it was decided that the ride should be shut down. On the ride, people went past scenes from the Spanish-American War and ride workers wore Spanish-American War uniforms when assisting people on the ride. The ride was, without a doubt, another rollercoaster failure for W.F. Mangels.

External links

1. [http://www.westland.net/coneyisland Jeffrey Stanton's Coney Island page]

2. Wild Ride, a book by Charles Denson