Disneyland's Castle Drawbridge Works - It's Been Used Twice

Every day, thousands of Disneyland guests walk over the drawbridge at Sleeping Beauty Castle on their way into Fantasyland. It looks like a fixed walkway, but it is a real, working drawbridge. It has only been put to use twice, and in 2025 Disney's Imagineers confirmed it still works.

Opening Day, Live on Television

Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California, on July 17, 1955. One of the big moments of the day was staged at the castle.

The drawbridge lowered, and children poured across it and through the castle into Fantasyland.

The scene went out live in a special called "Dateline: Disneyland," which reached tens of millions of viewers across the country.

Then the bridge stayed put. According to D23, Disney's official fan club, opening day was the only time it was lowered until 1983.

The Second Time, 28 Years Later

In 1983, Disneyland rebuilt Fantasyland almost from scratch. The new land opened on May 25, 1983, and its old Renaissance-style facades gave way to a storybook European village.

For the grand opening, held right in front of the castle, the drawbridge came down a second time.

Since then, the bridge has stayed fixed in place. Film of the 1983 opening ceremony in front of the castle survives:

The Test Nobody Expected

On August 31, 2025, Imagineers hosted a panel on Disney castles, called "Beyond the Spires," at the Destination D23 fan event at Walt Disney World in Florida.

Imagineer Wyatt Winter told the audience the team had asked Disneyland whether the old drawbridge still worked.

The park's crews were willing to lift up some of the rails and test it. The answer, Winter said, was that it "still works and functions."

Disney has not announced any plan to raise the bridge again. For now, it is a working drawbridge that spends its life lying flat.

A Small Castle on Purpose

The castle is smaller than it looks. It rises only 77 feet above the moat.

D23 says Walt Disney chose that scale deliberately. He recalled that European rulers built huge, imposing castles to intimidate the people below, and he wanted his castle to feel friendly instead.

Disneyland Park drew about 17.3 million visitors in 2024, according to the annual TEA/AECOM attendance report.

Millions of them still cross the drawbridge every year. It has only been lowered for a crowd twice.