The Disney Monorail

Book excerpt: All aboard a lavish visual celebration of one of Disney's most iconic and beloved creations: the Disney Monorail. Through a lively and succinct narrative and a stunning collection of unique historical photographs and rare concept and development art (much of it never before published) readers will be transported through the imagination of one of the great twentieth century geniuses, and into a future where yesterday's dreams are tomorrow's realities! Walt Disney is renowned as a cartoonist, filmmaker, showman, and entertainment icon. But he was also a far-sighted futurist, a transportation buff with practical roots in the past, and visionary sights set on the future. In imagining his Disneyland park, Walt saw it not only as a destination for diversion and entertainment, but also as a means of presenting practical demonstrations of new ideas and new technology with real-world applications. As Walt said, "Tomorrow offers new frontiers in science, adventure, and ideals: the Atomic Age . . . the challenge of outer space . . . and the hope for a peaceful and unified world." In The Disney Monorail: Imagineering a Highway in the Sky, readers will discover the parallel stories of the development of a new form of transportation and the evolution of Walt's prophetic creative mind, which resulted in the first daily operating monorail in the Western Hemisphere. From that day in June 1959, this mid-century modern marvel has captured the hearts and imaginations not only of theme park and Disney fans everywhere. It has also inspired, as Walt had hoped, the creation of working monorails in practical transit applications in varied locations all around the world.