Disneyland Celebrates 60 Years of Magic

Walt Disney’s goal was simple: to build an amusement park that children and adults could enjoy together, a place where they could experience the magic that he created through his films.

After more than two decades of dreaming and planning, Disneyland, built at a cost of $17 million, opened on July 17, 1955, in Anaheim, California, with 18 attractions in Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland and Main Street, U.S.A. Some, including the King Arthur Carrousel and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, still operate today.

In 2015, Disneyland celebrates its 60th anniversary, welcoming millions of visitors of all ages and from around the world every year.

Even for those who have been to Disneyland before, there’s always something new to experience. It’s a place of constant innovation, each decade adding more technologically advanced attractions designed to educate, thrill and delight.

Some of the early additions reflected Walt Disney’s own interests in areas such as transportation. (He was a big train enthusiast, so it’s no surprise that there are railroads at Disney parks around the world.)

The Monorail, with its space-age appearance, debuted at Disneyland in 1959, the first transportation system of its kind in the United States. That same year the park’s first roller-coaster style attraction, the Matterhorn, a 147-foot mountain bobsled ride, was introduced.

In the 1960s, Disneyland added two attractions that started out as part of the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City. “It’s a Small World,” a whimsical boat ride past dolls representing children from around the globe, was created in honor of UNICEF. Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, in the fair’s Illinois pavilion, used Disney’s Audio-Animatronic technology, which synchronizes movement, audio and visual effects to create a lifelike figure of the president delivering some of his most stirring speeches. The technology is now used in many other Disneyland attractions, including Pirates of the Caribbean.

Thrilling rides are also a big part of Disneyland and one of the most popular, Space Mountain, opened in 1977 in Tomorrowland. An indoor roller coaster designed in collaboration with a NASA astronaut, it gives riders the sensation of hurtling through outer space. The 87-foot-tall Splash Mountain, which travels through swamps and bayous before ending in a five-story drop over a waterfall, was added in 1989, in the park’s newly dubbed Critter Country.

Of course, characters from Disney films play an integral role in making Disneyland a magical place. In 2013, the park unveiled Fantasy Faire, a village square where young visitors can meet heroes and heroines from Disney movies, and a new musical, “Mickey and the Magical Map,” with Mickey Mouse in his role as the sorcerer’s apprentice.

Naturally, Disneyland has special plans for this year’s anniversary. The Diamond Celebration will launch on May 22 with a new parade, “Paint the Night,” and fireworks show, “Disneyland Forever.” Both promise to be spectacular displays, testaments to Walt Disney’s belief that “Disneyland will never be completed, as long as there is imagination left in the world.”

For help planning a trip to Disneyland, contact your travel agent.