Loop the Loop was an early
looping steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
roller coaster
A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...
which operated at
Olentangy Park
Olentangy Park was a trolley park, a type of amusement park, in Clintonville, Columbus, Ohio, operating from 1880 to 1937.
Location
Olentangy Park was located in what is now the southwest corner of Clintonville. The park boundaries on its west ...
in
Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
during the first decade of the 1900s. It was one of the first looping roller coasters to operate in North America, and it was designed and built by noted inventor
Lina Beecher
Lina Beecher (January 2, 1841 – October 5, 1915) was an American inventor and roller coaster engineer. Beecher is best known for building the first looping roller coaster in North America, which was known as the Flip Flap Railway, and a later ...
.
History
Loop the Loop was designed in 1904 by engineer and inventor Lina Beecher who was a supervisor at the
American Railway Company. Beecher had previously designed the
wooden
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin tha ...
Flip Flap Railway
Flip Flap Railway was the name of a looping wooden roller coaster which operated for a number of years at Paul Boyton's Sea Lion Park on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. The coaster, which opened in 1895, was the first looping roller coaster ...
at
Paul Boyton's Sea Lion Park
Sea Lion Park was a amusement park started in 1895 on Coney Island by Paul Boyton. He fenced the property and charged admission, the park becoming the first enclosed and permanent amusement park in North America. Up until the establishment of thi ...
on
Coney Island, New York
Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the ...
, but that coaster's circular loop produced excessive
g-force
The gravitational force equivalent, or, more commonly, g-force, is a measurement of the type of force per unit mass – typically acceleration – that causes a perception of weight, with a g-force of 1 g (not gram in mass measure ...
s on its riders.
Adapting the steel construction and teardrop-shaped loop pioneered by Edwin Prescott (builder of Loop the Loop roller coasters on Coney Island and Atlantic City), Beecher constructed the Loop the Loop at Olentangy Park.
The coaster sat near the park's dancing pavilion.
The ride was a failure, however, and it was removed shortly thereafter.
Ride experience
Loop the Loop was Beecher's attempt to modify his earlier ride and apply the teardrop-shaped loop element of Prescott's looping coasters. While the ride had a considerably more mild experience than Beecher's original Flip Flap Railway, it was not popular and it attracted few repeat riders. This unpopularity was attributed to a ride that was improved (over the Flip Flap Railway), but still very uncomfortable for the ride occupants. One rider wrote of the experience: "Myself and two others went around the loop the loop. Once was enough."
The primary difference between Prescott's coasters and the Olentangy Park Loop the Loop was that the Olentangy Park Loop the Loop was a single track coaster,
while Prescott's Loop the Loops were both
dual-tracked roller coaster
A dual-tracked roller coaster is a roller coaster that consists of two tracks. They can be configured as racing, dueling, or Möbius loop roller coasters. Some dual-track coasters operate only one track side at a time, including Rolling Thunder ...
s which had parallel tracks, each with one vertical loop.
Only four riders could ride the Olentangy Loop the Loop at once.
See also
*
Flip Flap Railway
Flip Flap Railway was the name of a looping wooden roller coaster which operated for a number of years at Paul Boyton's Sea Lion Park on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. The coaster, which opened in 1895, was the first looping roller coaster ...
, the first looping roller coaster built on Coney Island and the first in North America. It was also built by Lina Beecher.
*
Loop the Loop (Young's Pier)
Loop the Loop (occasionally referred to as the Flip Flap Railway) was a steel, dual-tracked roller coaster located in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The roller coaster opened in 1901 and operated until 1912. It was one of the earliest looping roller ...
, a looping coaster built in
Atlantic City
Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, Boardwalk (entertainment district), boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020 United States censu ...
,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
which was sometimes called ''Flip Flap Railway'' as well.
*
Loop the Loop (Coney Island)
Loop the Loop was a dual-tracked steel roller coaster that operated on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, from 1901 to 1910. The coaster was one of the first looping roller coasters in North America.
History
Loop the Loop was the second loopin ...
, The second looping coaster built at Coney Island.
References
{{Authority control
1908 establishments in Ohio
Clintonville (Columbus, Ohio)
Former roller coasters in Ohio