Cedar Point ‘Retires’ Top Thrill Dragster’ For Good

Nineteen years. Eighteen million riders.

Once it was the tallest and fastest roller coaster on the planet, and now it's joining the garbage heap of history. Cedar Point announced Wednesday that the Top Thrill Dragster is being "retired".

"A new kind of ride nearly two decades ago, the Top Thrill Dragster worked like a slingshot. Hydraulic pressure shot you down a half-mile track, tipped you over the top, and sent you racing down the other side. It would take you to 120 mph in 4 seconds and directly up 420 feet, almost as high as the Penobscot Building." - Detroit Free-Press

The Free-Press made the point best: "It went so fast, if you sat in the coaster's front car, it would blow your contacts right out of your eyes."

The news wasn't a surprise after the ride has been shut down for over a year due to a part flying off the ride and seriously injuring a woman on the ground. Earlier this year, the Ohio Department of Agriculture cleared Cedar Point of wrongdoing in the accident and then laid out a series of changes it wanted before the ride could reopen. Cedar Point opted to keep the ride closed for 2022. Reports say that a new ride will open at Cedar Point, likely in 2024.

(Marcus Leshock via YouTube)