A lot of fingers point in many directions over the closure of Disneyland's Skyway. The first understandably points to the April 17, 1994 story about a man who purposely jumped out of his sky bucket 20 feet above the ground, to land in a tree by the Alice in Wonderland attraction. His claim was that he fell and afterward sued Disney for $25,000. The Wiley Simeon's case was dismissed before reaching trial after he admitted to jumping out on purpose. This supposedly got the ball rolling and for Disney to start thinking about closing their Skyway.

The ride did close later on that same year on November 9th. The main factor for the closure was the metal fatigue taking place within the Skyway tower inside of the Matterhorn. Apparently small stress fissures had started to form that of course would only worsen with time. To fix this would have meant dismantling large sections of the Matterhorn in order to completely replace the tower within. An extremely costly endeavor involving a long temporary closure of the Matterhorn. If Disney had viewed the Skyway more favorably, they could have of course done what was necessary but the Skyway was apparently being viewed as an old attraction at this point rather than a classic. It's been said that the low number of riders on a given day was one of the reasons for the closure, which makes some sense. The relaxing pace and diminutive size of the sky buckets made it seem quite slow. It's plausible that at least one of the real reasons for the closure was the fact that teenagers were known to occasionally toss things from overhead or spit. Whatever the case, the Skyway's budget was transferred to the Temple of the Forbidden eye and the holes in the Matterhorn were filled. Mickey and Minnie waved down to fans as they made the final voyage before the Disneyland Skyway was permanently closed.

Many believe that the attraction closed because of the death that occurred earlier that same year in February. An older cast member was cleaning the takeoff platform early one morning when another cast member started up the Skyway. Without realizing someone was on the platform, not having much recourse, the cast member grabbed hold of the gondola and tried to climb inside. The photo above isn't from the same incident. This woman was very fortunately rescued. The cast memeber we're talking about fell from 40 feet. OSHA hit Disney with a fine over the issue and just like that several months later the Skyway was permanently closed. This was the only case of anyone dying on any of the Skyways. They were remarkably safe. When you look at this 30-year history and the one tragedy (is labeled as human error rather than a machine malfunction) the person responsible for starting that system that day in 1999 must still feel horrible.

Though Disneyland did handle the Skyway's departure with some humor by displaying sky buckets inside the Matterhorn in 2015 which was a nice touch.

They didn't entirely move on with grace while the Tomorrowland Skyway station was quickly demolished, the Fantasyland Chalet was left dormant, collecting dust for 22 years. Disneyland allowed nature to reclaim their Chalet area discreetly and gradually shrouding it from view even adding some fake overgrowth to further hide it. However the Disneyland Chalet was literally wiped off the map to make way for Galaxy's Edge.

The round buckets that could only hold two guests in fiberglass chairs, with a pole running down the center were sturdy and functional; capable of handling a 700 pound load. They were fun but they weren't the greatest, so when Disney finally re-themed the Sky buckets in 1965, for Disneyland's 10th Anniversary celebration, they turned to Bob Gurr. Bob was a man who could make any conveyance look both striking and exciting. He was making more futuristic, iconic, fun looking vehicles decades before anyone at Disney had even uttered test tracks. He did an exquisite job on redesigning and adding more safety features to the Skyway's sky buckets.

Bob was able to double the capacity from two guests to four, he got rid of the unsightly center post and squared off the round bucket look of the gondolas. He did it all with only increasing the weight of the gondola by a few mere pounds! This was accomplished by switching the fully metal sky buckets to mostly plastic with a sturdy metal frame.

Some believe Walt actually conjured the idea for Disney World while riding over Disneyland in a sky bucket. Gliding over he supposedly couldn't help but see the busy streets and touristy stuff piling up around his park, leading him of course to the decision to buy new land to protect a new park from such infringements.

There are some people who confuse an issue regarding the Skyway in the '64 World's Fair, which was a monumental moment in Disney history. Disney released the magic Skyway attraction at the '64 World's Fair and people and some websites apparently get it mixed up with the Skyway at the park.

Some even believe the Skyway was invented for the world's fair but there's no correlation between the attractions other than the strikingly similar name. The Ford cars riding through this window tunnel was supposed to be a trip through the past and future in an automobile.

Some referred to the Skyway as two rides. Skyway to Fantasyland and Skyway to
Tomorrowland.

Disneyland took things up a notch in 1978 and added a glimpse of Harold the abominable snowman. Guests got to see him from the Skyway and this was another huge crowd pleaser reinvigorating interest in an already popular ride that had been around for more than two decades by this point.

Stay close for part 4.

The single cable Gondola concept can easily be taken for granted today, but at the time in the United States, the Skyway was a first of its kind spectacle. The system conveyed passengers on a 4MPH clip at heights as high as 60 feet over the park, for a breezy three and a half minutes. There's some discrepancy whether they were 42 or 44 of the metal gondolas taking off every 9 to 20 seconds. And because there were people gracefully gliding overhead, it eased congestion for those walking below. As years went on it also served as a great way to get around parades.

The highest riding point was originally the tower on Holiday Hill which was really the excavation remains from the construction of Sleeping Beauty Castle's moat. Afterward landscaped and set with paths and benches to form a nice picnic setting which made for great views from the gondolas.

The Skyway opened in Disneyland in 1956 and temporarily closed in 1957 in order to make way for the second most massive expansion any Disney park has ever undergone.

It reopened in 1959 along with the Motorboat Cruise, the Submarine Voyage, the first ever Disney Monorail and the enormous Matterhorn Bobsled attraction. It was a great big day again fulfilling the promise that Disney made, and setting a precedent for the future.

They built the Matterhorn right on the site of Holiday Hill, the Skyway's tallest tower was in the middle of Holiday Hill. The Matterhorn is in Switzerland the Skyway is a Swiss design bought from a Swiss company it probably took imagineers all of a minute maybe two if that to come up with the idea of having the gondolas go through the mountain. While the '59 expansion wasn't exactly planned for the Skyway, Disney did capitalize on its shutdown to strengthen the towers with extra supports apparently from much urging from Von roll the grips to the cables were also changed.

Stay close for Part 3.

The Skyway was a staple in Disneyland Park. Both fun and relaxing, the attraction offered a break from walking through a busy park between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. It's humble beginnings started with Walt Disney's 1935 vacation through Europe where he spent six days in Germany and Switzerland. He really came to love Switzerland's traditions, music, peacefulness and aesthetic. After making the film Third Man On The Mountain, Walt visited again but with fresh eyes given that Disneyland had recently opened and was in full swing.

October 1955, Walt heard about a new Skyway system being tested out in Switzerland by a company called Von Roll. Supposedly it had small gondolas moving along a single cable system. Walt's imagination was immediately set ablaze with possibilities and he purchased the system before it was even completed. Unsure about what he was going to do with it, he was interviewed some days or weeks later and said it might be used for parking lots or huge shopping centers. By November 18th, he had figured out where the ride would go and put John Hench, his head imagineer in contact with the Von Roll Ironworks Engineers to work together. They finalized Disney's Skyway but the details are murky, Walt ended up purchasing a Skyway prototype called the Von Roll 101 model aerial ropeway.

It was made partially from leftover parts and equipment from the Rotterdam Fair and the German Federal Garden Show. The Von Roll 101 Sky rides powerful driving system was placed in Fantasyland neatly housed within a beautiful Swiss themed Chalet. While Tomorrowland's industrialized streamline station held the 35,000 pounds of counterweight ballast and kept the 2400 feet of cable nice and taut.

Von Roll as a company dates back to 1803 from Berne Switzerland, operating worldwide. Today they mainly focus on electrical insulation systems essentially working to create faster longer lasting e-drives and batteries for electric cars. However in the years leading up to the 1950s, they had built rides quite similar to Disney's Skyway a hundred times over and continued to do so afterward. The Von Roll 101 model aerial ropeway is still operating at Cedar Point Busch Gardens Tampa and the San Diego Zoo however the first Von roll Skyway attraction in America belonged to Disneyland!

Walt Disney himself first introduced the Skyway on June 23, 1956 just a year after the park opened. This made the Skyway the very first big enhancement to any Disney Park. It was a big deal because Walt was quoted on Disneyland's opening day as saying Disneyland will never be completed, it will continue to grow as long as there is Imagination left in the world. This was the first time he was making good on that promise!

The Swiss Consul General of Los Angeles was at the opening event. He was essentially a Swiss presence to lend some weight to the occasion.

Stay close for Part 2.