America at Play

That large, rolling contraption could be the ancestor of the modern Tilt-A-Whirl. To the engineer part of my brain, it appears that it wouldn't require much energy input to operate - gravity lends a hand. To the kid part of my brain, I would probably ride it for hours - I don't suffer from motion sickness.

The Whip also looked like it would be a lot of fun, depending on the actual speed.

Lakeside Amusement Park, just west of Denver, restored its Whip about a decade ago, and its moderate speed matched the Coney Island video. It's a fun ride with only a bit of thrills, great for families.

So many of the videos of old rides on video make me wonder what they must have been like, so I feel privileged to have actually experienced such a century-old mechanism.