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Kingda Ka, the tallest roller coaster in the world, is permanently shut down at Six Flags Great Adventure as the park makes way for a new roller coaster set to break records, officials said Thursday.
Read more from NJ.com.
Apropos of nothing, I've gone back through my records and it seems that I rode Kingda Ka 26 times during the commercial shoot in May 2005, and never bothered riding it again – despite several trips to Great Adventure over the years. I won't be mourning its passing.
I develop Superior Solitaire when not riding coasters.
The Guinness Book of Records used to list the Blue Streak at Woodcliff Pleasure Park as the tallest coaster ever built. (The Guinness Book in the 1970s was an authoritative book, unlike the versions produced today.) RCDB doesn't list a height, but says it was demolished in 1941. The park was apparently closed that year. So that would qualify, if the height reported by Guinness is correct.
Since then, the only one-time record holder I can think of that has been demolished is the Chapultepec ride. Maybe there was an Arrow looper in there that I'm forgetting?
(Depending on whether you count the spike in various Schwarzkopf shuttles.)
I don't think the purists would consider LR wood, as the running surface is steel (in at least some sections).
Allegedly the park put out a bid to have Kingda Ka demolished by implosion in February.
https://www.shorenewsnetwor...adventure/ [Archive Link]
I guess Top Thrill Dragster/2 won't be losing "tallest coaster in the world" to Ka twice, like I had hoped.
[Edit: That photochop job on the lead image sure is ... something!]
- Julie
@julie
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