History
The roller coaster was designed by Herbert Paul Schmeck of the Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters. Its serial number is 86. In 1930, it was installed under the name "Roller Coaster" at Lakewood Park in Waterbury, Connecticut. Frank F. Hoover oversaw the construction. The coaster operated in Connecticut for only five years before being closed and moved to Canobie Lake Park. It was rechristened the "Yankee Cannonball" in 1985, in commemoration of the American Civil War. The coaster's train colors were originally blue and gray, representing the Union and Confederacy sides of the conflict, all being united on the ride's red, white, and blue superstructure.
When the ride was moved to Canobie in 1936, each section was shortened by six inches to help it fit the area planned for it. The rethemed ride opened for the 1936 season and has operated continuously since, though the lift hill was destroyed by Hurricane Carol in 1954, and it was closed for repair during the following season.
The coaster's coloring has been altered since 1936 with retracking work done on the coaster. As of the 2009 season, the ride superstructure is white with orange handrails. One train is colored red, white and blue, while the other is hunter green and orange. The coaster is one of the first rides seen when entering the park's parking lot.
Read more about this topic: Yankee Cannonball
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Considered in its entirety, psychoanalysis wont do. Its an end product, moreover, like a dinosaur or a zeppelin; no better theory can ever be erected on its ruins, which will remain for ever one of the saddest and strangest of all landmarks in the history of twentieth-century thought.”
—Peter B. Medawar (19151987)
“I am not a literary man.... I am a man of science, and I am interested in that branch of Anthropology which deals with the history of human speech.”
—J.A.H. (James Augustus Henry)
“America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”
—Georges Clemenceau (18411929)