Walt Disney’s icy mountain wasn’t just a thrill ride — it reinvented what a theme park attraction could be.

Disney Parks have some of the best rides in the world (and yes, I’ll admit, I’m a little biased). I like a good thrill, but I’m not one to chase the tallest or fastest coasters out there. Disney’s rides hit that sweet spot for me: They’re exciting, imaginative, and packed with storytelling magic.

From blasting through the stars on Space Mountain to racing through the desert canyons of Big Thunder Mountain, Disney’s roller coasters are masters of immersion. And Expedition Everest? It’s basically a lesson in narrative design, complete with a ferocious Yeti waiting at the summit.

But before all of these, there was one mountain that changed everything. Long before Space Mountain or Everest, Walt Disney dreamed up an attraction so ambitious it redefined what a roller coaster could be. To see where modern thrill rides truly began, we have to head back to 1959, when Disneyland unveiled the world’s first steel-tube coaster: the Matterhorn Bobsleds.

Photo by Regan Wong

How the Matterhorn Came to Disneyland

When Disneyland Park first opened, the Matterhorn Bobsleds weren’t part of its original attractions. But there was a “mountain” in the park, right on the same spot that today’s Matterhorn sits. Nicknamed Holiday Hill, it was a 20-foot-tall forested mound of dirt originally dug out to build Sleeping Beauty Castle that sat right between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. Walt Disney wanted to transform the hill into a mountain complete with real snow and a toboggan ride, but ran into objections from his team (namely Joe Fowler, construction chief of Disneyland).

After a visit to Switzerland to film Third Man on the Mountain in 1959, Walt fell in love with the real Matterhorn mountain in the Swiss Alps. So, he brought that mountain home with him (well, kind of) and dreamed up a new plan for Holiday Hill: a toboggan-themed roller coaster ride, just using bobsleds in place of those toboggans.

Disneyland’s Matterhorn Created a New Kind of Coaster

When the Matterhorn Bobsleds opened on June 14, 1959 at Disneyland, it became the theme park’s very first roller coaster. The ride takes guests on a thrilling mountain adventure, complete with a surprise abominable snowman. Two tracks take up to six people down in each bobsled.

But the Matterhorn wasn’t only Disneyland’s first roller coaster attraction. It was the first tubular steel roller coaster in the world! Arrow Dynamics, the company credited with inventing tubular steel track, helped bring the first modern steel roller coaster to life in creating the Matterhorn Bobsleds. 

While older steel roller coasters did exist at this time, including the Little Dipper at Memphis Kiddie Park in Ohio (North America’s oldest steel coaster), the Matterhorn was innovative in the unique tube structure of its track. It features long steel tubes run in pairs, supported by larger steel beams or columns.

For years prior, roller coaster tracks were built out of wood. Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds feature an innovative steel track that led to what we see in modern coasters. This foray into steel coasters paved the way for more flexibility and speed, eventually allowing for elements like loops and other inversions. Tubular steel coasters allowed for more innovation and flexibility, a detail that not only made the Matterhorn iconic, but also paved the way for future (and more advanced) coasters. 

So the next time you’re on a tubular steel coaster, be sure to thank Matterhorn Bobsleds!

Photo by Danny Shuster

The Matterhorn Includes Some Classic Disneyland Tricks, Too

When Disneyland was built, Imagineers relied heavily on the trick of forced perspective to make things look bigger than they actually are (Sleeping Beauty Castle is one of the best examples). Matterhorn Bobsleds also uses this trick…which is good, because otherwise Disneyland would need to figure out how to fit a life-size mountain in a single theme park! 

To make Disneyland’s version of the Matterhorn look like its real-life counterpart in the Alps, Imagineers create an illusion of its height and overall size via forced perspective. Like with the castles, as you go higher, the mountain gets smaller. This technique makes the height seem much taller. 

So as you can see, this 1959 attraction was way ahead of its time. From technology that gave birth to the modern coasters of today to using forced perspective to create illusions around scale and size, this bobsled ride changed theme parks forever.