Pitt Fall
defunct drop tower at Kennywood

Pitt Fall was a drop tower ride located at Kennywood amusement park in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. The name of the ride was a pun on the word "pitfall", a type of booby trap, but spelled with two "t"'s in reference to the nearby city of Pittsburgh. When it opened in 1997, it was the tallest drop tower in the world. The ride was manufactured by Intamin and its model is known in the industry as a "Giant Drop".
History
Construction of Pitt Fall began in July 1996 at the former site of Phantom Flyers. Pitt Fall soft opened on April 17, 1997, during a special preview day. The ride opened to the public on April 20, 1997.
In June 2011, Pitt Fall was listed for sale and bought in early September by an undisclosed buyer. After 14 years of operation, Pitt Fall permanently closed on September 18, 2011. It was replaced by Black Widow in 2012.
“Pitt Fall” enters the record as defunct drop tower at Kennywood. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pitt, Fall and defunct can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pitt Fall” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.