The Crystal Beach Cyclone was one of a 'Terrifying Triplet' of highly extreme and intense roller coasters designed and built by Harry G. Traver in the late 1920s.

The following year, the Schneck brothers, owners of Palisades Park in Fort Lee, NJ, contracted Traver to build a 'Cyclone' for the 1928 season.

Of the three, the Crystal Beach version was the most famous and longest lasting, eventually being dismantled in September 1946 due to the high maintenance costs and falling revenues.

Some of the wood and steel from the Cyclone was used by John Allen and Herbert Schmeck (both designers for the Philadelphia Toboggan Company) in the construction of the Crystal Beach Comet coaster in 1948.

Despite this, it is still considered a wooden roller coaster, due to the construction of the track (300 X 25 millimetre wood laminants topped by a flat steel rail).

The Cyclone was said to place over 4 Gs of force on passengers, and had a top speed approaching 97 kilometres per hour (60 mph).

The main difference in the design was that the spiral on the Cyclone at Palisades was even tighter than the two preceding coasters because of the extremely limited space in the park.

This would have been slightly faster than before opening day because almost half a metre had been removed from the height of the second hill due to roll-back problems.

[2] Yvonne Salais died on the second day of sister coaster Lightning's operation, in 1927, after having jumped out.

[2] The Crystal Beach ride also kept a nurse in the station who was there to assist anyone who fainted, although she was originally hired to help lower insurance costs.

Structural and mechanical failures prevented it from being able to be open on anything resembling a regular schedule, and the ride's sheer viciousness did not endear it to the park's visitors.

[3] In 1938, the entire ride at Crystal Beach was overhauled (supposedly by Herbert Schmeck) with many extra stress ties added.

As soon as we entered the park one evening, we headed straight for the roller coaster, which was identified with a huge sign announcing "The Cyclone--Thrill of a Lifetime".

The only other memorable part was as we reached a high horizontal point again, we were racing around a curve at such speed that it seemed certain that we would fly off into thin air.

Very frankly, I was quite relieved to see the cars finally slowing down...even then, they approached the unloading platform at such a speed that one would think they would overshoot and go right into the spectators.