<P> By 1919, the first underfriction roller coaster had been developed by John Miller . Soon, roller coasters spread to amusement parks all around the world . Perhaps the best known historical roller coaster, The Cyclone, was opened at Coney Island in 1927 . Like The Cyclone, all early roller coasters were made of wood . Many old wooden roller coasters are still operational, at parks such as Kennywood near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Pleasure Beach Blackpool, England . The oldest operating roller coaster is Leap - The - Dips at Lakemont Park in Pennsylvania, a side friction roller coaster built in 1902 . The oldest wooden roller coaster in the United Kingdom is the Scenic Railway at Dreamland Amusement Park in Margate, Kent and features a system where the brakeman rides the car with wheels . It was severely damaged by fire on April 7, 2008, but was subsequently restored and reopened to the public in 2015 . Scenic Railway at Melbourne's Luna Park built in 1912, is the world's oldest continually - operating roller coaster, and it also still features a system where the brakeman rides the car with wheels . One of only 13 remaining examples of John Miller's work worldwide is the wooden roller coaster at Lagoon in Utah . The coaster opened in 1921 and is the 6th oldest coaster in the world . </P> <P> The Great Depression marked the end of the golden age of roller coasters, as amusement parks generally went into a decline that resulted in less demand for new coasters . This lasted until 1972, when The Racer opened at Kings Island amusement park located in what was then a part of Deerfield Township in Warren County, Ohio . Designed by John C. Allen, the instant success of The Racer helped to ignite a renaissance for roller coasters, reviving worldwide interest throughout the industry . </P> <P> In 1959, the Disneyland theme park introduced a new design breakthrough in roller coasters with the Matterhorn Bobsleds . This was the first roller coaster to use a tubular steel track . Unlike conventional wooden rails, which are generally formed using steel strips mounted on laminated wood, tubular steel can be bent in any direction, which allows designers to incorporate loops, corkscrews, and many other maneuvers into their designs . Most modern roller coasters are made of steel, although wooden roller coasters are still being built along with hybrids of steel and wood . </P> <P> In 1975 the first modern - day roller coaster to perform an inverting element opened: Corkscrew, located at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California . In 1976 the vertical loop made a permanent comeback with the Great American Revolution at Magic Mountain in Valencia, California . </P>

When was the first metal roller coaster built