Мыңжылдық Күш – «Cedar Point» аттракционы

Steel roller coaster at Cedar Point

Millennium Force is a steel roller coaster located at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. Manufactured by Intamin, it was the park's fourteenth roller coaster when it opened in 2000, dating back to the opening of Blue Streak in 1964. Upon completion, Millennium Force broke five world records and was the world's first giga coaster, a term coined by Intamin and Cedar Point to represent roller coasters that exceed 300 feet (91 m) in height. It was briefly the tallest and fastest in the world until Steel Dragon 2000 opened later the same year. The ride is also the third longest roller coaster in North America following The Beast at Kings Island and Fury 325 at Carowinds. Millennium Force features a 310 feet (94 m) cable lift hill with a 300 feet (91 m) drop, two tunnels, three overbanked turns, and three hills. The coaster also has a top speed of Since its debut, Millennium Force has been voted the number one steel roller coaster ten times in Amusement Today's annual Golden Ticket Awards. Although Millennium Force has been surpassed in height and speed, it remains one of the tallest and fastest coasters in the world.

The planning, design and development phases of Millennium Force took place over five years, from 1996 to 2000. The first rumors that a new record breaking roller coaster would be built at Cedar Point, which included speculation about a ten inversion roller coaster from Bolliger & Mabillard and an Arrow Dynamics MegaLooper, began circulating in early 1998. A roller coaster from D. H. Morgan Manufacturing was also rumored. On July 2, 1999, Cedar Fair Entertainment Company filed a trademark for the name Millennium Force, which raised more speculation about what the ride would be like. About a week later, the first track pieces were seen at the park, and it was confirmed that the ride would be manufactured by Intamin. Cedar Point officials also confirmed that it would not have inversions.

Millennium Force was announced on July 22, 1999. It would be the tallest roller coaster in the world, taking the record from Fujiyama at Fuji Q Highland in Japan. The ride cost $25 million to design and build. Cedar Point, Intamin, and Werner Stengel designed the layout of the ride. After the ride was announced, several disputes about whether Millennium Force or Superman: The Escape was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world arose between Cedar Point and Six Flags Magic Mountain. Superman: The Escape is 415 feet (126 m) high and its speed is ; however, it is a shuttle roller coaster, not a complete circuit roller coaster. Construction started in August 1999 when the site was cleared. Millennium Force was built in the Frontier Trail section of the park. The ride involved the relocation of the Giant Wheel and the Cedar Point and Lake Erie Railroad. Two hundred twenty six footers, each about 5 feet (2 m) deep were dug; the largest ones were The lift hill was topped off in early January 2000. The ride's construction took seven months, and 120 construction workers and project managers participated. Testing took two months. About a month after Millennium's debut, Cedar Point introduced a virtual queue system, "Ticket to Ride", which allowed visitors to buy a ticket then return later and wait in a shorter line. Before the start of the 2004 season, Millennium Force's seat belts were modified because of an incident that occurred on Superman the Ride, a similar roller coaster at Six Flags New England. The roller coaster's layout was repainted over a three year period, before the 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons. In 2012, the park added a new LED lighting system.

On September 2, 2001, the cable used to haul trains up the lift broke during a morning test run, resulting in the stranding of 30 park employees at the top of the coaster's lift hill 275 feet (84 m) above ground. It took about an hour for all employees to be brought down. In July 2023, a duck flew into a moving train and reportedly became trapped between a seat and a portion of the ride train. The duck was removed by a guest, who turned it over to Guest Services, and the duck was later turned over to wildlife rehabilitation services.

Millennium Force's entrance is located behind the Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad's Millennium Midway station. The queue is situated between the ride's last overbanked turn and the station. A DJ booth is provided to entertain waiting visitors; the park's "Jamming DJ's" take requests for family friendly songs from people in the queue. It was then replaced by Cedar Point's FUNtv, which plays music videos of popular songs, the Gatekeeper/Maverick shuffle, park trivia, sports news, park advertisements, weather forecasts, and popular news headlines. About a month after Millennium's debut, Cedar Point introduced a new queue system known as "Ticket to Ride" (later Fast Lane) to reduce the wait time. Visitors could buy tickets then return later and wait in a shorter line. In 2012, Cedar Point introduced its Fast Lane queue system on the ride; visitors can buy a wristband which enables them to wait in a shorter line. The system was tested at Kings Island the previous year, where it received positive reviews.

Millennium Force is a Giga Coaster model designed by Werner Stengel and built by Swiss manufacturer Intamin. as of 2020, Millennium Force is one of two Giga Coasters built by Intamin, the other being Project 305 at Kings Dominion.

Millennium Force operates with three stainless steel, stadium style seating trains colored red, yellow, and blue. Each train has nine cars that seat four passengers, allowing a maximum capacity of 36 people per train and 1,300 riders an hour. Each train weighs 19 tons. Millennium Force's theme song is played in the station while riders are boarding.

The steel tubular track is 6595 feet (2010 m) long and the lift is approximately 310 feet (94 m) high. As both a high altitude and high velocity ride, Millennium Force is affected by unfavorable weather conditions such as rain, lightning or strong winds; under these conditions the ride is closed, but in light rain it can remain open.

When the ride opened in 2000, Cedar Point chose High End Systems, headquartered in Austin, Texas, to light the ride. Rob Decker, Cedar Point's Corporate Director of Planning & Design, said that they thought they would have to mount multiple floodlights on the tower. However, they were able to install thirty EC 1 floodlights at the base of the lift hill structure which provided lighting throughout the ride's structure. Of the six main support towers, three had six EC 1s, and three towers had four EC 1s. The three tallest towers had another unit in the middle. Over the years, the lights were not maintained and grew noticeably dimmer. In 2012, Cedar Point introduced a nighttime show, Luminosity — Ignite the Night!, to "re energize" the park at the end of the day. New LED lights from Sunrise, Florida based Chauvet Professional were installed to illuminate the ride. Twenty COLORado Range and ten COLORado Ridge wash lights were installed at the base of the lift hill structure.

When it opened in May 2000, Millennium Force broke five world records among roller coasters and introduced a new magnetic braking system instead of the commonly used friction brakes.