Skooter: 1928

You know you're getting old when the kids start misidentifying things "everyone" knows. I remember the sound of the metal strip sparking as it glided over the mesh, the tinge of ozone in the air. There were occasionally dead zones in the mesh. The operator would have to push you a few feet, or you would have to wait for a friendly bump. Six Flags still has this type of ride available, as will many older amusement parks. Since the primary enjoyment of this ride is low-speed vehicular collisions, they have been less popular with park owners.

I bet the mesh on the rafters was to keep birds from roosting up there and doing what they do on the people below.

[The mesh carries the electrical current that powers the cars. - Dave]

This building still exists. There's an NPS page on its history.

Washington Post, May 25, 1924

The "Skooter," the big feature this season, has twenty-five two-seat cars that dash here and there bumping into one another over 10,000 square feet of steel flooring, electrically driven and controlled by the driver.

apparently didn't play on such an aggressive ride back then!

I rode those in the early 1960s ..

They used to have a radio jingle:

"Fun is where you find it,
Where do you find it?
Glen Echo
Amusement Park!"

I can still hear it today.

There's a ghostly figure of a man next to the kid on the right with no head. This ride is too dangerous, Mommy!