Skyway (Disney) - History

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 Motor Boat 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 is mostly hidden by trees, 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 its 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 was used for stroller parking, but has now been demolished to make way for the expanded restrooms for Peter Pan's Flight.

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