The Roller Coaster Featured in Annie Hall Is Coming Back to Coney Island
- Photo via Wikipedia
Some unexpected, great news for Coney Island: the Thunderbolt, which was immortalized as Woody Allen’s childhood home in Annie Hall but unceremoniously torn down in 2000 after nearly two decades out of operation, will be making a major return to the waterfront next summer in the form of a massive, $10 million reboot.
Plans were announced last night by the city’s Economic Development Corp., which has hired on Zamperla USA to build an updated version of the beloved roller coaster, this one comprised of over 2,000 feet of steel track, several loops and corkscrews, 65 mph speeds, and a steep 125-foot drop. It will not be for the faint of heart. Or, in the words of Zamperla’s president Valerio Ferrari (a perfect name for a roller coaster tycoon if ever there was), “There’s nothing like it in Coney Island right now, and people are going to love it.” Fair enough.
The project, set to go up on a plot of land at West 15th Street and Surf Ave, will be the first custom roller coaster built in Coney Island since the Cyclone in 1927, and EDC’s executive director said of the project, “Coney Island is once again demonstrating its incredible resilience” in its ongoing recovery from Sandy. Good news for those of you who like to terrify yourselves for fun, and also a nice bookend to the new from this fall that over in the Rockaways, the place featured as Woody Allen’s childhood home in Radio Days made it through the storm with out irreparable damage.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.
