Happy 25th Anniversary American Eagle

BrianPlencner · Post by **BrianPlencner** » Tue May 23, 2006 5:42 am

Date: Saturday, May 23, 1981
Place: Marriott's Great America

Today we celebrate the opening of the American Eagle. The American Eagle holds a place in the 1981 Guinness Book of World Records as the "Tallest, Fastest, Double Racing Wooden Roller Coaster in the World". With a lift hill standing at 127 Feet 10 inches, and a first drop of 147 feet 10 inches at a top speed of 66.32 MPH.

In honor of this event, I will be spending the day at the Gurnee park, riding this awesome coaster.

Happy Anniversary American Eagle!

jonrev · Post by **jonrev** » Tue May 23, 2006 2:33 pm

I have a 25th anniversary video planned for AE.

To me, it is still THE best wooden coaster i've ever been on.

BrianPlencner · Post by **BrianPlencner** » Tue May 23, 2006 7:38 pm

Everyone,

Got home from the park around 8 PM. Had a great day at the park. Got in 45+ rides on Eagle.

By the way, I keep hearing things that the park will be doing on Monday. While I'm not going to pass anything on here, you'll have to go out and check things out for yourself!

RandyV · Post by **RandyV** » Wed May 24, 2006 10:21 pm

Awesome milestone!

I first rode the Eagle in 1981 on a band trip in grade school. My buddy and I waited a total of 3.5 hours in the queue to get a ride on the blue side. Every time I see that empty queue line under the tent (assuming it's still there) -- I flash back to that day in '81 when I went through the whole thing for one ride.

Happy Birthday, Eagle!

BrianPlencner · Post by **BrianPlencner** » Thu May 25, 2006 2:12 am

Yes, the tent is still there. Below are some pictures I took on Tuesday before the ride opened for the day. For some reason, it did not open till 10:30 AM, so I had some time to get some pictures of the empty line.

Glorfindel7 · Post by **Glorfindel7** » Thu May 25, 2006 4:24 am

In a way I'm glad that the queue line is empty now for the Eagle. when that thing was completely full, you could easily expect a line to be 90 minutes to 2 hours!

BTW has that queue line EVER been completely filled lately? With this being the 25th anniversary, I'm sure there will be quite a few old rides and new riders sharing the memory of this great ride

RandyV · Post by **RandyV** » Thu May 25, 2006 8:50 pm

Great pics, Brian. Thanks for sharing. That's one area of the park that certainly hasn't changed in the past 25 years.

redfishpaw · Post by **redfishpaw** » Fri May 26, 2006 8:22 am

I wonder if SF considers the circus tent / eagle que line future expansion area, since it really isn't used as much anymore.

jonrev · Post by **jonrev** » Fri May 26, 2006 9:48 am

Actually it is still used. A few times last year I saw the tent at least half-full on crowded days.

SFGAmfreak4life · Post by **SFGAmfreak4life** » Fri May 26, 2006 2:51 pm

Also the tent has the foods stands underneath.