Skyway (Disney)

Skyway
Land	Fantasyland; Tomorrowland
Designer	WED Enterprises
Manufacturer	Vonroll LTD
Attraction type	Vonroll Type 101 detachable monocable gondola lift
Propulsion method	Top-mounted, 55HP electric motor
Soft opening date	June 10, 1956
Opening date	June 23, 1956
Closing date	Nov 9 1994
Vehicle type	Passenger
Vehicle names	Cabin, Gondola cars
Vehicle capacity	4
Guests per car	4
Ride duration	3:36 minutes
Length	1200 ft (365.8 m)
Total height	60 ft (18.3 m)
Maximum speed	4.0 mph (6.4 km/h)
Ticket	D

Skyway
Disneyland
Opening date	June 23, 1956
Closing date	November 9, 1994

Skyway
Magic Kingdom
Opening date	October 1, 1971
Closing date	November 10, 1999

Skyway
Tokyo Disneyland
Opening date	April 15, 1983
Closing date	November 3, 1998

The Skyway was a gondola lift attraction at Disneyland, at the Magic Kingdom, and at Tokyo Disneyland. Since all versions of this attraction took riders back and forth between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, the route from Tomorrowland was called Skyway to Fantasyland, and the route from Fantasyland was called Skyway to Tomorrowland.

History

The Skyway at Disneyland opened on June 23, 1956. It was built by Von Roll, Ltd. based in Bern, Switzerland. It was the first Von Roll Type 101 aerial ropeway in the USA. Walt Disney Imagineering bought the ride from Switzerland. It was a 1947 Vonroll sidechair model. In 1959, a major renovation added The Submarine Voyage, the Disneyland Monorail, the Matterhorn (now a Fantasyland Attraction), and the Motorboat Cruise, but when the Matterhorn was planned it was designed to be built right in the path of the Skyway, so without a single closure of the Skyway, the Matterhorn was built around the Skyway.

During the Fantasyland renovation at Disneyland in the mid-1980s, the Skyway made only roundtrips from Tomorrowland.

The Disneyland Skyway was removed on November 9, 1994 due to stress cracks in the Matterhorn roller battery supports. At Disneyland, the Fantasyland Skyway station remains but is off limits to guests and completely empty (no machinery), and the Tomorrowland Skyway station has been demolished. The holes in the Matterhorn were filled in and the Skyway supports were dismantled within weeks.

In 1998, Tokyo Disneyland closed their Skyway. The Fantasyland station was removed to make room for Pooh's Hunny Hunt, while the Tomorrowland station was remodeled into a candy store.

At the Magic Kingdom, the Skyway was removed in 1999. The Tomorrowland station was demolished in the summer of 2009, while the Fantasyland station is now used for stroller parking, but will soon be demolished to make way for the expanded restrooms for Peter Pan's Flight.

Accidents

The Skyways had their own share of accidents, mostly in later years.

Disneyland

On Sunday morning, 17 April 1994, a 30-year-old man named Randle Charles jumped approximately 20 feet from one of the Skyway cabins and landed in a tree near the "Alice in Wonderland" attraction. He was helped out of the tree by paramedics and taken to nearby Western Medical Center, where he was treated for minor injuries and released. Charles later filed a $25,000 negligence lawsuit against Disney, claiming that he had suffered permanent neck and back injuries as a result of his fall.

Despite the initial assertion of Charles' attorney that Randle "wasn't doing anything improper, and he certainly wasn't trying to get out of the ride," Charles indeed jumped, not fell, from his Skyway cabin. Charles' lawsuit was dismissed just before it was to go to trial on 23 September 1996; at that time he admitted that he "came out" of his Skyway cabin and that his lawsuit against Disney was "ill-advised."

Magic Kingdom

On February 14, 1999, a park custodian at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom was killed when the skyway started up while he was cleaning one of the platforms at the Fantasyland terminal. Raymond Barlow, 65, was sweeping off a narrow skyway platform inaccessible to park guests an hour after the park's 9 a.m. opening when Cast Members, unaware of his presence, started up the ride. Barlow, startled by the approaching gondola, grabbed onto it and tried to climb inside; he fell 40 feet into a flower bed, hitting a tree on the way down, and died. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration later ruled that the area in which Barlow had been working violated federal safety codes and fined Walt Disney World $4,500 for a "serious" violation of safety standards. Several months later, on November 9, 1999, the Magic Kingdom's skyway was also permanently closed. Once again, the decision to close the attraction was allegedly based on factors other than its being involved in a recent accidental death. Some say it was closed due to the widow's request. In October 2011 the station was removed.

See also

• List of past Disneyland attractions
• Magic Kingdom attraction and entertainment history
• Incidents at Walt Disney World Resort

References

External links

• Yesterland Skyway page
• Article about Magic Kingdom Skyway death
• [1]