Golden Era
It is agreed upon by many that the Golden Era of coaster design was the 1920s. This was the decade when many of the world's most iconic coasters were built. Some of these include Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk's Giant Dipper, the Coney Island Cyclone, Big Dipper at Geauga Lake, and The Thriller at Euclid Beach Park. This decade was the design peak for some of the world's greatest coaster designers, including John A. Miller, Harry Traver, Herb Schmeck, and the partnership of Prior and Church.
Unfortunately, the Great Depression brought the destruction of many of these great classics, but a few still stand as American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) classics and landmarks.
The popularity may have come to a short closing, but that didn't stop certain amusement parks from building scream machines again and again. Cedar Point built Blue Streak in 1964, a Philadelphia Toboggan Company-manufactured coaster designed by John C. Allen. This relatively quiet age of coaster design following the Great Depression was brought to an end by The Racer at Kings Island, which opened in 1972 and sparked a second "Golden Age" of wooden coaster design that continues today.
Read more about this topic: Wooden Roller Coaster
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