For so long, his life was about speed, or, more precisely, the rate at which he could thrill people by moving them quickly forward.
Now, his life is all about slowing down.
Bill Watkins, the guy who designed the ride at Space Mountain at Disneyland and was the first to take that ride, is 87. His routine these days consists of going to the grocery store, riding his bike around his Long Beach neighborhood and keeping detailed notes of his thoughts and activities. “Not much,” he said with characteristic brevity.
But Watkins recently made a new friend, Kyle King, 29, who showed up at Watkins’ condo as Watkins was carrying groceries. King once read an article about Watkins in the Long Beach Press-Telegram and had been a fan of Watkins’ work for many years. When he was a teenager, still living with his parents in Bixby Knolls, King built a miniature Space Mountain in the living room.
The young man and the old man shared a love for roller coasters.
So, when King heard that it had been 13 years since Watkins last rode Space Mountain, he got an idea. He would invite him to ride Space Mountain one last time.
“This will probably be my last ride,” Watkins said. “I suppose it’s goodbye.”
That happened Wednesday, Feb. 7.
Watkins walked through Disneyland with a cane and needed a wheelchair to get up the ramp to take the ride he created 40-plus years ago. The details of Space Mountain remain about the same as what he engineered – a 200-foot circle; an indoor space of 1.8 million cubic feet; girders that rise 68 feet; track that extends 2,267 feet.
But Watkins’ reaction at the end of his last ride was fresh. And it was how we all can only hope to react if we get a chance to take one last ride.
Slower world
How fast do you think you’re traveling when you’re in the rockets on Space Mountain?
Think of the speed of a car on the freeway. Is Space Mountain faster than that? Slower? Is it 100 miles per hour, like Bill Watkins has heard people telling each other?
Watkins contemplated the speed question for years in the early- to mid-1970s. He built his first Space Mountain at Walt Disney World in Florida. But it was bigger – a 300-ft. circle on two tracks. When the Disneyland Space Mountain opened, on Jan. 10, 1977, Watkins had completed what he always saw as a giant math problem.
Space Mountain is a gravity coaster. Unlike the Matterhorn, which relies on thrusters to help move its vehicles forward, Space Mountain simply starts up and goes down. Technically, it’s 75 seconds of free fall.
At its maximum speed (which can vary slightly depending on the combined weight of the riders) the car you’re riding in Space Mountain is traveling about 40 feet per second.
That’s 27.27 miles per hour.
That seems really slow.
But Watkins somehow made it just right. More than 250 million people have ridden Space Mountain since it opened. And while it’s unclear if it’s the best – Disneyland’s public relations department would only say that Space Mountain is, according to guests, “a top 10 attraction” – how many are better?
It is certainly arguable that Bill Watkins created the most popular roller coaster of all time.
“I seldom meet anyone who hasn’t ridden it,” he said.
Making things move
Watkins grew up in Indiana, and he built his first roller coaster in his backyard with a ladder and a red wagon. He broke his arm three different times testing out that ride. He was the kind of kid who made airplane wings and mounted them on his wagon and rode through town.
“I wanted to make things move,” he said.
He modified and raced sports cars, a passion that proved very important in his future.
Watkins married his wife Elizabeth (he called her “Bet”) in 1952 while he was at Ohio State University studying engineering. (Fact: Bet, who was married to Bill for more than 60 years, refused to ride Space Mountain. Too scared, she told him.)
Eventually, the aerospace industry coaxed Watkins to Southern California. He was working at Honeywell in West Covina, developing space simulators for astronaut training, when he saw a newspaper advertisement looking for a designer at an amusement park.
“I don’t remember if the ad said ‘Disney,'” Watkins said.
The job interview wasn’t going well, he said, until he pulled out photos of the cars he’d modified. They liked his speed work.
Watkins was hired by Walter E. Disney Enterprises in 1966 for $328 per week.
His first project was the People Mover. Then he built the bumpers on Autopia cars. He worked on the Snow White ride and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
He called his work on Space Mountain the “T&A” portion of his career, referring to “Test and Adjust.” For example, Watkins switched out nylon wheels on Space Mountain to polyurethane. Nylon, he explained, was too fast.
He wrote a computer program to help him figure out the banks and curves and deceleration of the ride. He had to figure out how to get empty cars around the track as fast as full cars. He also had to figure out how to get the cars to stop at the end of the ride.
Then he rode Space Mountain for the first time.
“It felt like I thought it ought to,” Watkins said.
Need for speed
In 2004, Kyle King felt a hole in his life. He had an annual pass at Disneyland, but his favorite ride, Space Mountain, was in the midst of a two-year-long refurbishing project.
That’s when his parents began buying him the parts – in a construction set called “K’Nex” – to make his own roller coaster.
“I worked on it 12 hours per day,” King said.
Eventually, it became a 13-foot-tall structure with 60,000 parts. His mother, Denise, also eventually made him move it out of the living room.
King went to Long Beach State and studied engineering. In 2015, he completed his master’s degree. His Space Mountain-inspired roller coaster is now on display in the Long Beach State engineering department.
King said he is not working now. That gives him time to keep up his new relationship with Watkins. He has visited Watkins three or four times and called him several times on the phone.
“I was fascinated by the stories he told,” King said. “It was a thrill to meet him. It was one of the best times of my life.”
In December, King saw Watkins riding his bicycle in Long Beach.
“When was the last time you rode Space Mountain?” King asked.
“2005,” Watkins said.
“Have you ever thought about riding it again?”
“Sure,” Watkins said.
That’s all it took. King contacted Disneyland and, on Wednesday, Disneyland opened Space Mountain early for its creator.
Dark side
To honor Watkins, the Space Mountain staff turned on the lights inside the usually dark ride. The lights made it possible for Watkins to examine his old handiwork.
He noticed details like the width of the tubing on the track (2 1/2 inches) and how quickly the cars launch (one every 22.2 seconds).
Watkins and King sat in the first car and zoomed through the ride. He said he remembers working on the math for the highest banks and the fastest curves.
When the ride finished, Watkins didn’t smile.
Someone asked him how he felt.
“Fine,” the aging engineer said.
And then Watkins did what we all would want to do when faced with our last ride. He asked a simple question:
“Can we go again?”
The staff hopped back into position. But, this time, they turned off the lights. Watkins said he wanted to ride Space Mountain the same way millions of others have ridden it over the past 41 years.
This time, the ride seemed faster
“It’s better in the dark.”
