After a few delays, Coney Island’s Thunderbolt expected to open Friday

June 12, 2014 By Rob Abruzzese Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Coney Island has a new roller coaster, Thunderbolt. Soon we'll actually be able to ride it. Photo by Rob Abruzzese

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The legendary Coney Island roller coaster, the Thunderbolt, will ride again this summer…At some point.

The opening day for the Thunderbolt has been twice delayed already this season, but it is expected to finally open this weekend. It was supposed to open last Friday, but was delayed while construction finishes.

The Brooklyn Eagle was on hand last Friday as it eagerly anticipated its opening, but was disappointed to see the gates shuttered. The good news is that it looked nearly completed and has been spotted since making test runs so the potential opening this weekend seems likely.

It has been named after the original Thunderbolt, which was a wooden roller coaster, that ran from 1925 until 1982 and was made famous in the Woody Allen movie Annie Hall. This modern steel version reaches a top speed of 65 miles per hour, features a 92-degree vertical drop and is 125-feet tall at its highest point. It also has four inversions including a vertical loop, a zero-G roll, an Immelmann loop and a corkscrew across 2,000 feet of track.

The ride was designed by the Italian company Zamperla, made in Italy and transported to Brooklyn by boat. The entire thing cost roughly $10 million, but ticket prices are only $10 per person.