- It is creeping.

It's crawling.

Ah!

It flies!

Hi, I'm Amanda Vinicky, a reporter with WTTW News Chicago Tonight.

Yes.

We're here at Six Flag's Great America in Gurnee, Illinois.

Today we have an exclusive look at one of the park's, iconic, legendary rides, the American Eagle.

Why has the American Eagle soared for so long?

I think because it's such a classic, right?

Here it is, several decades later, people are still enjoying it.

It's the memories, but also it's made of wood.

Yeah, I mean, the cool thing is it was built with 1.36 million feet of Douglas Fir, and there were 9,000 gallons of paint used to paint this ride by hand.

When it opened in 1981, American Eagle was the fastest, the longest, and the tallest wooden racing coaster in the world.

What exactly is a racing coaster?

Both sides of the coaster raced alongside of each other simultaneously.

So while it doesn't do that right now, we do alternate between sides.

So we're watching it go up again.

We're gonna see a really cool view of the park because it spans over a quarter mile.

We're gonna go off the 147 foot drop, and we're gonna get pretty far down there, and then we're gonna experience a 360 helix.

We're just gonna go in a circle spiral, 360 degrees.

Woo!

That's gonna be us pretty soon.

- We made it.

Now's the time.

I'm excited.

Are you excited?

I'm pumped.

I really am.

We're gonna be fine.

Knock on wood!

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

- Alright.

Whoa!

Round the bend.

I can feel the wind We're speeding up.

You ready?

Oh, I'm ready.

Okay.

- Oh, alright.

Here we go.

The fear sets in, the anxiety, the apprehension.

No backing out now.

Okay, we're getting closer to the top.

Alright.

Yes we are.

Look at, you can see the whole park.

This is awesome.

This is really cool.

What a view!

Oh what a view!

- Okay, here it is.

We're gonna go 147 feet down, down, down, down.

Ah!

(Screaming and laughter) Woo!

(Screaming and laughter) (upbeat music) - Oh my gosh.

Okay, so that goes up to 66 miles an hour.

Does it feel like that?

It feels like Like we're on a highway!

We're on a highway!

Now we're going into 360 degree helix.

People right now on the highway are wishing they were us.

The FOMO is real.

The FOMO is so real.

Helix!

Spiral!

Woo!

(laughter) Woo!

Getting closer!

Takes up a quarter mile span of the park, but what we're riding on is nearly a mile of thrills and fun and ups and downs and spiral turns.

Oh my gosh.

And all of that.

Douglas fir up there.

Look at all the Douglas fir.

(laughter) Woo!

I really could do that all day long.

I remember doing this with my dad.

We'd ride, get off, get right back in line to do it again.

Yeah.

And again and again.

Are we going again?

Ah!

(upbeat music)