KENNYWOOD'S

RECORD-SETTING

ROLLER COASTER

READY FOR RIDERS

Roller coasters are, by nature, extreme.

So it’s only natural that Kennywood Park has pushed the limits with its latest — the Steel Curtain.

This black-and-gold bad boy — its name a reference to the dominating defense of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team — is the serpentine steel centerpiece of a new area of the park called Steelers Country, a first-ever such collaboration between an amusement park and a professional sports team.

Like a hulking defensive lineman, the new coaster means to scare some people and toss them around. It opened to the public on July 13, 2019, after a July 12 media preview. The rest of Steelers Country opens later this summer.

Turning records

on their heads

The Steel Curtain sets two other records — the most inversions on a North American coaster (nine) and the world’s tallest coaster inversion (197 feet).

We’ve known a new coaster has been on the way since July 2018. The West Mifflin amusement park kept “Project 412” — located where the Log Jammer used to be, in the northeast corner of the park — under wraps, and then teased the public for two months until officially announcing it. Kennywood kept updating the public, posting point-of-view animations of what the ride will be like and videos of test rides before announcing the public opening day.

Illegally fast

on most highways

It'll hit a top speed of 76 mph.

The coaster was designed and built by S&S Worldwide Inc. The black-and-gold ride vehicles have laced football-shaped seats. The "19" and “33” on the front of the lead vehicle of each of two trains references 1933, when the Steelers franchise was founded. The restraints are only lap bars (no shoulder restraint) and lap belts.

Photo provided by Kennywood

After the highest upside-down point, the cars make a drop of 205 feet. The zero-gravity “stall” make riders feel weightless by flipping them 180 degrees so they’re hanging upside down over the midway before flipping them in the other direction back up.

Who's the tallest

of them all?

Pennsylvania coasters aren’t nearly as big as Ohio’s, where Cedar Point’s Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster top out at 310 feet and 420 feet, respectively. But at 220 feet, Kennywood’s new coaster stands over the other extreme coasters in this state.