Loch Ness Monster

Busch Gardens Williamsburg broke ground in December 1977 on a coaster designer Ron Toomer engineered specifically to do something no roller coaster had done before: send two vertical loops through each other's structure without either colliding. Arrow Development built the ride into the park's Scottish Heatherdowns hamlet and named it for Scotland's most famous legendary creature, revealing it to the press on March 2, 1978 as construction neared completion.

The Loch Ness Monster opened to the public on June 2, 1978, climbing 130 feet before a 60 mph drop into the first of its two interlocking loops, then a helix through a themed tunnel before a second lift and loop bring trains back to the station — 3,240 feet of track in just over two minutes. At its debut, park general manager John Roberts touted it as the fastest and tallest coaster in the world with the longest drop, and its interlocking-loop engineering was unlike anything else operating anywhere. Just a week after opening, the ride hosted the first-ever American Coaster Enthusiasts convention on June 9–11, 1978 — the club's founding event took place in its shadow.

The Loch Ness Monster earned ACE's Roller Coaster Landmark designation in 2003, and for its 40th anniversary in 2018 the park replaced the ride's original Arrow trains with new rolling stock from S&S Worldwide, keeping the vintage layout running with modern hardware.

Nearly five decades after its debut, "Nessie" remains Busch Gardens Williamsburg's oldest operating coaster and one of the most historically significant looping coasters still running anywhere in the world.