WASHINGTON, June 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
THRILL RIDES
Profile America — Wednesday, June 15th. With summer and school vacation almost here, children will be urging their parents to take them to the nearest amusement park. Long among the most popular features of these parks are ever more thrilling roller coasters, which trace their roots back to 17th century ice slides in Russia. In the U.S., the first roller coaster opened this month in 1884 at Coney Island, New York. It was built by LaMarcus Thompson and was called the "Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway." The ride lasted a minute at a breakneck six miles per hour and cost a nickel. Now, there are 485 theme and amusement parks across the nation, and they do more than $12.5 billion worth of business — or pleasure — annually. You can find current data on the country's economy by downloading the 'America's Economy' mobile application at www.census.gov/mobile.
Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 3621
Ice slides: http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/coasters/history/start/begin1.shtml
Amusement and Theme Parks: http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/BP/2013/00A1//naics~713110
Receipts: http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ECN/2012_US/00A1//naics~713110
Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at <http://www.census.gov> (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu).
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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
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