Thrills such as the roller coaster first began in Russia, as no more than a mere slide built of ice sheets and lumber that you slid down. We went from this simple pleasure to the mind bending, stomach lurching, steel-sparking roller coasters we have today- but what advancements for the future might there be?

Well shortly after the Russian’s ice sheets and lumber, the French built the first two wheeled roller coasters. They were christened Russes a Belleville (the Russian mountains of Belleville) and the Promenades Aeriennes (The Aerial Walk).

In Paris, France inside the Frascati Gardens, the first roller coaster with a loop was established. The hill was 43 ft. and the loop was 13ft. wide.

However, a man named La Marcus Thompson finally brought the idea of roller coasters to the Unites States. He was inspired by an old mine cart that was brought up a hill by a steam car and then rolled back down the hill. This idea intrigued him so he decided to be the first person to build a roller coaster in the U.S., and he did! The Switch Back Coaster as they called it was built in Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. It reached about 50 ft. and was used as a scenic coaster weaving through the woods. La Marcus Thompson’s Scenic Railway only cost 5 cents to ride, but even so it earned about 600 dollars a day!

From this beginning, the roller coasters were off to a roaring start, so to speak. People began to build roller coaster for thrill instead of just scenic use, increasing speed and amount of loops, turns, drops, and corkscrews to create pure madness and some twisted kind of joy. Roller coasters eventually evolved from wood and nails into what we’re familiar with today: that magical invention, steel.

Today you can also find that the way we ride roller coasters has also changed such as instead of a cart you are placed in a chair and tilted face down to the ground and then sent through a series of loops and twirls. An example of that would be Tatsu in Six Flags, in California. The stand up roller coaster is yet another example of a new concept of an old design.

With all these new ways to get your fill of thrills including increased speeds, innumerable amounts of loops, new concepts, and so much more, it leads us to wonder what could the future hold for roller coasters.

Would we manage to break the record with even more speed or height or will we once again change the method of riding or even the construction of the ride itself?

Tell me what your thoughts are and what you think a cool addition to the roller coasters of the future would be.