Wednesday Open Line


With summer and school vacation almost here, children will be urging their parents to take them to the nearest amusement park. Long among the most popular features of these parks are ever more thrilling roller coasters, which trace their roots back to 17th century ice slides in Russia. In the U.S., the first roller coaster opened this month in 1884 at Coney Island, New York. It was built by LaMarcus Thompson and was called the “Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway.” The ride lasted a minute at a breakneck six miles per hour and cost a nickel. Now, there are 485 theme and amusement parks across the nation, and they do more than $12.5 billion worth of business — or pleasure — annually. You can find current data on the country’s economy by downloading the ‘America’s Economy’ mobile application at<www.census.gov/mobile>.