If you like getting beaten up like a boxer in a fighting ring, then there’s no ride at Disneyland
better than the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Many who ride it agree that there is a special kind of bodily
torture available here. “So…why do people ride it then?” You ask? Because it’s one of those fun,
unique experiences at Disneyland that you can’t quite get anywhere else.
Towering 147 feet into the air, it is and always has been, the tallest structure in Disneyland.
It has survived countless earthquakes, lightning strikes and even 60 years of almost daily use.
The Matterhorn Bobsleds is a structure of many record breakers:
tallest structure in Orange County 1959, first tubular steel rollercoaster, first rollercoaster
with a computer controlled dispatch system and block brake sections, first thrill ride
at Disneyland, first E ticket in the Disneyland ticket book, world’s largest scale model, the
only Disneyland ride to switch from one land to the other without ever moving, and it’s the only
version of this ride at any Disney theme park; and the company has opted to keep it that way.
And now fellow bobsledders, let the slopes carry us away into the mountain,
where the caves reveal the history and stories of this most iconic toboggan run…
The haze of time dissipates before us, and we can see Disneyland in 1955,
construction workers have dug out the moat around the castle, and the excavated dirt was
too expensive to haul away, so it was simply piled up into a mound next to fantasyland.
Before the park would open, wooden walls would be erected to prevent visitors from seeing backstage
Fantasyland and this ugly looking hillside. Walt Disney was never too happy about this
corner of the park and after Disneyland opened, he immediately thought up ideas on how to replace it.
But time and time again, the expenses of hauling away this big pile of dirt were too great.
Unless the investment could represent a profitable return of equal or greater value,
it was simply impractical to remove the dirt.
Walt ordered the hill to be landscaped so at least it wouldn’t be such an eye sore from Main Street,
but almost as soon as they added trees and grass, Fantasyland added its newest attraction.
In the year 1956, the Disneyland skyway opened, carrying passengers in small gondolas from
Fantasyland to Tomorrowland. The central tower was placed on top of the hill, and unfortunately,
there wasn’t enough money in the budget to hide the tower…Imagineering simply hoped the
newly planted trees would eventually disguise the structure as they grew.
Meanwhile, Walt felt the park needed more hidden nooks for people to get away from the hustle and
bustle. He felt this landscaped dirt mound was perfect for the job. The pile was given proper
walking paths that led up to a lookout area giving great views of the park’s hub. Benches were placed
here for people to rest, and this lonely dirt hill was finally given a name: Holiday Hill.
Nighttime at Disneyland during the late 50’s made Holiday Hill the perfect spot for a sort of lover's lane.
Here couples had a little too much privacy, and Walt felt something had to be done…
In 1958 Walt felt that they could make Holiday Hill into Snow Hill, a permanent snow-covered
landscape where guests could ski down the slopes. Park Operations Manager, Dick Nunis,
had told Walt that the Snow Hill idea was very expensive and highly impractical,
especially during the summer months. Nunis had insisted that what Disneyland lacked was thrills,
there were no rides in the park that gave guests any sense of danger or excitement.
Walt turned to him and said, “Nunis…this is NOT an amusement park!” …Dick Nunis shyly responded, “no
sir…but the guests want something more exciting and we have to give the guests what they want.”
Walt had later approached Imagineer Vic Greene and told him that Nunis wanted a thrill ride,
and now it was up to Vic to design him a thrill ride for Disneyland. Vic was inspired by Walt’s
Snow Hill idea and came back explaining that instead of skiing, they could do toboggan rides.
The Bobsleds would have wheels hidden underneath and the track would be made of fake snow.
Walt had gone with his film crew to Switzerland for the filming of Third Man on the Mountain.
He brought his wife Lillian with him, and together they took an extended vacation in the Swiss Alps
to oversee the filming of the movie. When Walt saw the majestic Matterhorn Mountain
off in the distance, he felt greatly inspired by it. He suddenly thought of snow hill, and had an
incredibly grand idea. He went to the nearest gift shop and hastily wrote on the back of a Matterhorn
postcard, then sent it through the mail. Imagineer Vic Greene received the postcard
in the mail, on the back was scribbled only a few words: “Vic, build this. -Walt”
Vic came up with designs for putting the toboggan ride in a scaled-down version of the Matterhorn,
it would be like a mad-mouse coaster, since it was safe at those heights, and
that style of rollercoaster was gaining popularity in the 50’s.
Although, Dick Nunis thought the capacity was too low. Sure the ride could satisfy
the current demand, but what about the future when the ride becomes popular?
So Vic approached Imagineer Bob Gurr for help, he, in turn, held a meeting with the ride’s
intended manufacturer: Arrow Development. Bob had suggested that Arrow work on a type of controlled
dispatch system that would allow for several vehicles to traverse the route at the same time.
This attraction would be Arrow Developement’s first roller coaster, and even though mad-mouse
coasters were a successful concept, they weren’t sure that the ride system could emulate
the smooth banked turns of a toboggan ride. All rollercoasters at the time, including mad-mouse
coasters, used flat rails made of either wood or steel. They could be incredibly bumpy and jerky
at times, because bending them into shape created small deformations. Bob asked Arrow about the rail
designs they created for the Jungle Cruise’s underwater guideway. They were made of tubular
steel and created a smooth transition around turns. He wondered if this material could be
turned into a rollercoaster track, and in fact…the answer was a definite yes. But again, they had
never built a rollercoaster before, so Bob would have to design the rails and track himself.
Dick Nunis wondered if the attraction would have a high enough capacity, to which Bob responded
that they would build two tracks to double it. He drew up the design of the track, two tubular
steel rails to support both sides of the bobsled, and connecting arms to keep them
at a constant distance apart. The connecting arms would be welded to a larger piece of steel that
followed the path of the coaster and supported the entire weight of the track and the vehicles.
I must pause to say that since the ride opened people have been complaining about its bumpiness.
People believe it’s because the rails are warped and need to be smoothed out…but this is only a
small bit of the problem. You see, back in these days, rollercoaster designs weren’t as advanced
as they are today. To better understand this, you need to know the difference between a heart-line roll,
and an in-line twist. As you know, when a rollercoaster makes a turn, the track and vehicle
tilt into the turn slightly. Well back in the 1950’s and before that, the track tilt was done
from the centerline of the track, thereby jerking the passenger’s bodies to the side briefly while
they transitioned into the turn. The quick twist into the tilt is what causes pain to the riders.
Rollercoaster engineers have since learned not to measure the banking of the turn from the center
of the track itself; instead they must twist the track around the approximated heartline of
the rider. This helps move centrifugal force downward on the rider, instead of sideways.
Bob then designed the ride vehicles to be a single bobsled with two tandem
seats. And to allow more than one bobsled to traverse that
track at the same time, Arrow Development devised an idea to create vehicle brakes.
A basic computer could monitor the position of the ride vehicles and if one vehicle entered
the block section of another, they could be slowed down or stopped in specific sections of the ride,
thereby preventing a collision. The brakes themselves were primitive.
While rollercoaster brake mechanisms did exist and brought cars to a stop...no
one had yet invented trimming brakes to slow a vehicle down without stopping them.
There would be a system of motorized tires along the track in various areas, they rotated at a
speed appropriate for that section and when a bobsled passed over it, it came in contact with
the smooth steel pad on the underside. Depending on the speed of the vehicle it would either slow
down or speed up when coming in contact with the tires. And to bring the bobsleds to a complete
stop, there were steel brake pads lined with tire treads. They were spring-loaded and were
only disengaged when their air cylinders were fully pressurized. The main computer monitored
the position of the bobsleds by using a system of infrared beams strategically placed along the route.
When a bobsled broke the beam by passing through it, the computer was alerted where the
bobsled was. The Bobsleds could keep moving as long as the block ahead was clear, otherwise,
they would be brought to a stop. The booster tires and brake pads are still used on the ride today,
and constantly running over them contributes to the rough and bumpy nature of the ride, but one
could argue that the historic ride technology should be appreciated for how unique it is.
With Bob handing over his designs for the track and vehicles, Arrow Development
went to work manufacturing them. Every curve in the track required the rails
to be bent with the aid of a hydraulic grip that pinched the rail into shape,
a skilled worker monitored the curvature with his own mindful eye. Nowadays,
the bending of rollercoaster rails is done with the precision of a computer-controlled machine.
Meanwhile structural engineering and construction of the mountain was contracted out to the American Bridge Co.
They had quite a portfolio of projects including building the iconic
Oakland Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco to the city of Oakland.
Disney’s relationship with the construction company continues to this very day
where they were recently contracted to build structures for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
There was still one big issue in the way of constructing the Matterhorn and it was staring
them in the face. Holiday Hill was massive. There was a lot of dirt and it was going to cost
a lot of money to remove it. So, when the contract was signed, the agreement was for American Bridge
to remove half of the dirt, and simply build the Matterhorn on top of what was left!
The Skyway system had to be temporarily dismantled so they could remove the central
tower and build a new one into the new mountain structure. The dirt leftover
from Holiday hill was leveled into a flat mound that stood 8 feet high.
Obviously, you can’t build something as heavy as the Matterhorn on a pile of dirt,
so massive steel piles were driven deep into the ground and filled with high-strength concrete to
anchor the mountain to its foundations. From there, gargantuan steel girders were installed
on top of the piles and a network of beams and crossmembers were welded in place. A structure of
this kind…you know…a mountain with a rollercoaster and a gondola ride running through it…
...was pretty experimental, so to ensure the structure was strong enough, the beams supporting the
structure were manufactured larger than necessary to add a certain amount of redundancy of strength.
Earthquakes are also a big problem in California. The mountain had to be built to try to withstand them.
Cross-bracing beams were installed in several strategically located areas.
This would prevent the ground shaking from toppling the mountain, but still allow the mountain to sway and
disperse the energy of the ground movement. This has proven to be a successful execution of design
because the Matterhorn Bobsleds attraction has withstood dozens of earthquakes of notable size,
including the destructive 1994 Northridge Earthquake.
The rollercoaster track was brought in and hoisted up to the structure and then bolted into place.
Now here is where things get interesting. The ride track was attached directly to the
mountain structure itself. Today, building codes would require that the support structure for the
coaster be built separately from the mountain. This is so that vibrations and transmitting
momentum forces from the ride vehicles don’t fatigue or damage the mountain structure.
Interestingly enough, this cannot be corrected on the Matterhorn…because the mountain is already a
tangle of metal and concrete as it is. So, if Disney wanted to update it by separating the
track from the mountain, and then install smoother heart-line rolls like we talked about earlier,
they would have to demolish the whole thing and rebuild it entirely.
With construction ramping up in order to meet Walt’s tight deadline,
Imagineers and Arrow Development were hard at work, fretting over the details.
Nothing like the Matterhorn Bobsleds had ever been built before, and many of the Imagineers
wondered if it was even possible for such a complex and new-fangled ride system to work.
Next time on Part 2, the Matterhorn Bobsleds makes history as the world’s
first tubular steel roller-coaster, and a terrifying new resident moves in.