Millennium Force

Millennium Force

Millennium Force is a steel roller coaster located at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. Upon completion in 2000, Millennium Force broke six world records and was the world’s first giga coaster. The ride is also the third-longest roller coaster in North America following The Beast at Kings Island and Fury 325 at Carowinds.

About Millennium Force in brief

Summary Millennium ForceMillennium Force is a steel roller coaster located at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. Upon completion in 2000, Millennium Force broke six world records and was the world’s first giga coaster. It was briefly the tallest and fastest in the world until Steel Dragon 2000 opened later the same year. The ride is also the third-longest roller coaster in North America following The Beast at Kings Island and Fury 325 at Carowinds. The planning, design and development phases of Millennium Force took place over five years, from 1996 to 2000. It cost USD 25 million to design and build and was built in the Frontier Trail section of the park and the Giant Wheel was relocated to make room for it. In August, Cedar Point engaged John Hancock and Associates of Indianapolis and Stalker Radar of Indianapolis to measure the height and speed of the roller coaster. The roller coaster’s seat belts were repainted over a similar roller coaster at Six Flags New England because of an incident that occurred on the Superman Ride. The coaster’s height was 310 feet and the speed was 93 miles per hour, slightly faster than what the park had been advertising before the start of the 2004 season. Since its debut, Millennium force has been voted the number one steel roller roller coaster ten times in Amusement Today’s annual Golden Ticket Awards; as of 2019, it had never been ranked lower than second place.

It is the first Giga Coaster and was also the world’s fastest complete-circuit roller coaster, but was later overtaken by other rides. The park conducted a “pull-through” by pulling a train along the course to ensure proper clearance. The ride was inspected and tested with water-dummies on the trains. About a month after Millennium Force’s debut, Cedar Fair Entertainment Company filed a trademark for the name Millennium Force, which raised more speculation about what the ride would be like. The first media event was held on May 11, 2000, and the ride opened to the public two days later on May 13. After the ride was announced, several disputes about whether Millennium Force or Superman: The Escape was the tallest or fastest roller coaster arose between Cedar Point and Six Flags Magic Mountain. Superman:  The Escape is 415 feet high and its speed is 100 miles per hour ; however, it is a shuttle roller coaster and not a complete- Circuits roller coaster as it is not a full circuit. It has a 300-foot drop, two tunnels, three overbanked turns, and four hills. Millennium Force was announced on July 22, 1999, as the tallest roller coaster on the world, taking the record from Fujiyama at Fuji-Q Highland in Japan. Cedar Point officials also confirmed that it would not have inversions. It was the park’s fourteenth roller coaster dating back to the opening of Blue Streak in 1964.