GET READY FOR THE MONORAILS!

06.25.09 -

Crossing lakes and circling the Matterhorn, the Monorail provides a "first" in family fun, and a preview of tomorrow.

Someday in the not-too-distant future, residents of many of America's major cities may be speeding across their metropolis aboard a monorail train. Electrically operated, these futuristic trains are regarded by many authorities as the answer to traffic congestion and speedway traffic tieups.

Summer visitors to Disneyland are previewing tomorrow's transportation — today!

Two streamlined monorail trains, racing across and around the entire new attraction area at the Magic Kingdom, are introducing Americans to the first daily-operated monorail system in the United States.

The Disneyland-Alweg Monorail System is letter-perfect in every detail. Demonstrating and testing every aspect of a monorail system for large cities — from high speeds to complete safety — the system has been described by Walt Disney as "not only an outstanding entertainment attraction, but a practical prototype of tomorrow's interurban transportation."

Two ultra-modern 82-passenger trains are providing Magic Kingdom guests with spectacular views as they race over the Submarine Voyage's coral lagoon, above the many-level Autopia Freeways and the new Motor Boat Cruises, and around Matterhorn Mountain. The trains run atop a concrete "highway in the sky" — a beamway supported by sturdy concrete pylons and reaching heights of up to 35 feet.

Even the access to the Monorail Station is futuristic. A Speedramp, or moving sidewalk, transports visitors from ground level to the loading platform and back down — while they don't even take a step!

Another great "first" in Disneyland entertainment: a preview of life in the future aboard the Disneyland-Alweg Monorail System — now operating at Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom.



From the Summer 1959 edition of Vacationland magazine, published by Disneyland.