On June 18, 1975, Dewey and Jerome Albert, owners of the adjacent Astroland amusement park, entered an agreement with New York City to operate the ride.

After Astroland closed in 2008, Cyclone Coasters president Carol Hill Albert continued to operate it under a lease agreement with the city.

Coney Island was the largest amusement area in the United States from about 1880 to World War II, attracting several million visitors per year.

[3]: 5 [8] The Rosenthal brothers leased a land lot for 19 years from the Coast Holding Company, a syndicate composed of "many prominent business and amusement men of Coney".

[9] With the success of the Cyclone, the Rosenthals installed a similar ride at Golden City Park in Canarsie, Brooklyn, in 1928.

[12] The Cyclone was placed under the supervision of Christopher Feucht, a Coney Island entrepreneur who had built Drop the Dip in 1907.

[13]: 2  By that time, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses planned to clear a 100-foot-wide (30 m) area inland of the Riegelmann Boardwalk, which would have required the relocation or closure of the Cyclone.

[17][19] Increased crime, insufficient parking, poor weather, and the post-World War II automotive boom were all cited as contributing factors in the decline.

Its owners, East Coaster Corporation, unsuccessfully fought the city; they did minimal long-term maintenance, enough to keep the ride operating safely.

[23] The Cyclone was then operated under contract by East Coaster Corporation while the city worked with the New York Aquarium on plans to redevelop the site.

[26] This created a conflict between the aquarium, which supported the Cyclone's demolition, and the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce, which opposed it.

[28][29] By 1974, city officials doubted their decision to purchase the Cyclone and considered leasing the coaster to a private operator.

[23] The city changed its plans to dismantle the coaster and, in April 1975, invited sealed bids to lease operation of the ride.

[23] The former concession stands (built into the coaster's structure) was home to the Coney Island History Project,[53] which was moved to a space near the Wonder Wheel.

[53] The Cyclone is considered an "irreplaceable" structure, since timber-supported coasters can no longer be built under modern New York City building codes.

The brown wooden track has red wood fencing alongside it and has a white structural framework, giving it a distinctive appearance.

It drops slightly, ascends into a tunnel with a small left fan turn, and enters a brake run just before re-entering the station.

[61] On August 23, 1988, a 26-year-old maintenance worker, riding in the back seat during his lunch break, was killed after falling 30 feet (9.1 m) from the coaster and landing on a crossbeam of a lower section of track.

[62] Keith Shirasawa, a 53-year-old man, suffered several crushed vertebrae in his neck while riding the Cyclone on July 31, 2007, and died four days later due to complications during surgery.

[65] On August 22, 2024, the Cyclone was halted mid-ride upon discovery of a crack in the lift hill chain's sprocket, forcing the evacuation of several riders without injury.

[68] Aviator Charles Lindbergh was said to have ridden the Cyclone two years after it opened,[69] and reportedly called the experience "greater than flying an airplane at top speed".

[70][55] Emilio Franco, a mute coal miner with aphonia, visited Coney Island in 1948 and reportedly screamed while going down the Cyclone's first drop.

Rodriguez broke his own record for the longest roller-coaster marathon in 2007, riding for 405 hours and 40 minutes at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in the United Kingdom.

[72] In 2009, the Coney Island History Project gave an award to Howie Lipstein, who had ridden the Cyclone for 50 consecutive years.