Coney Island breaks ground on Thunderbolt roller coaster

CONEY ISLAND (WABC) -- Coney Island is set begin work Monday on a new thrill ride to rival the famed Brooklyn Cyclone.

Luna Park will break ground on a new steel roller coaster called the Thunderbolt, which will take riders on a vertical lift, a 115-foot vertical drop, then a 100-foot vertical loop and five inversions.

It will be Coney Island's first new custom coaster since 1927, the year the Cyclone was built. It will be the first coaster to include a loop since 1910, except for a very short-lived one in the 1980s.

The Thunderbolt is named after a wooden coaster that operated from 1925 until 1982, which was demolished in 2000.

Valerio Ferrari, president of Central Amusement International, says it will be Luna Park's "wow coaster."

Park visitors can expect to take a ride this Memorial Day weekend.