This Tall to Ride

In 1886, a new roller coaster at Coney Island, New York, was described as “a contrivance designed to give passengers, for the insignificant expenditure of five cents, all the sensation of being carried away by a cyclone.” Ordinarily, a cyclone isn’t something we would seek out… nor pay five cents to experience. In fact, we’d probably pay handsomely to go elsewhere. But at an amusement park, we willingly board contraptions with fearsome names like the Thunderbolt, the Whip or the