The sightseeing train was built from a mishmash of salvaged and repurposed auto parts, which honestly just goes to show the innovation the Imagineers had at that time (and still do, of course!) It debuted on June 26, 1957, and had two routes that ran through Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.Ībout a year later, Walt and his wife Lillian came face-to-face with an actual monorail while traveling through Germany.

The Viewliner was not a monorail system, but rather a train designed by legendary Imagineer Bob Gurr. Walt was obsessed with the idea of progress and in 1957, started talking about an innovative way to bring excitement to the newly opened Disneyland. This patent is often cited as the first idea for a monorail system, however, it wouldn’t be until the 1950s that a popular animator and visionary by the name of Walt Disney would literally and figuratively take the ball and run with it. Henry Robinson Palmer, an inventor popular in the 1900s, filed a patent dated November 22, 1821, for “a single line of rail, supported at such height from the ground as to allow the center of gravity of the carriages to be below the upper surface of the rail.” While the monorail has become synonymous with Walt Disney World, the monorail system as a whole has been around since the 1800s. The monorail at Disney World is a public transit monorail system that transports guests to various areas around the property.

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