Of the structural soundness of roller coasters...

This subject was a matter of great and frequent interest to me this past weekend as I whiled away a Sunday with the family at Cedar Point, an amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio which rivals the likes of Six Flags and Magic Mountain. I was a hardcore acrophobe growing up--bouts of vertigo would strike whenever I looked down from even the most modest of heights. But I have since then eased out of this common phobia, as evidenced by my ability to keep my eyes open during all of the dozen or so coasters we rode at Cedar Point, Millenium Force with its quadruple corkscrews and 200 foot ascent, and 180 foot descent, the equally gravity-defying maXair, to name a couple.

And then there was the Wicked Twister. Wicked indeed. This thing was like two giant upright spiral pasta noodles joined in the middle by a straight track (we'll call it ziti.) The spirals reached a couple hundred feet up into the air & riders are shot up several times up and back over these spirals at mad silly speeds. Now the other roller coasters went just as high, but this one was special in that the tangle of girders and supports holding the uprights didn't seem to be doing their job. As we waited in line for our turn to be thrilled & chilled, I watched with growing fear as the damn thing wobbled to and fro with considerable give during and after each ride. Me: not happy for most of the wait. But I am still alive & yes, I was thrilled & chilled even after imagining my death by the crush of steel raining down from 20 stories above.