Many rivers around the world naturally run beneath the ground, but others have been forced underground due to flooding, pollution, location, and diseases. Some of these rivers were dammed, covered, and diverted through concrete or brick sewage systems, and cities were built over top.

These once-thriving rivers fell victim to the concrete jungle, but some have successfully been daylighted in recent years. Many people don’t even realize that rivers are flowing beneath their cities.

10 Neglinnaya River
Moscow

Flowing under Red Square, Alexandrovsky Sad, and the Metropol Hotel in Moscow is the Neglinnaya River, also known as Neglinka, Neglinna, and Neglimna. The natural river once flowed openly from northern Moscow to the south across the center of the city.

The river was first used as a moat around the Kremlin to help stop foreign invasions, but it was mostly unsuccessful. People living in the area began to see frequent flooding, and the Muscovites knew that something needed to be done with the river.

In 1792, they constructed a new canal parallel to the Neglinnaya River and diverted the water into the new tunnel. The old riverbed was covered by the builders. After the Fire of Moscow in 1812, the canal became so polluted that it was covered with a vault.

There have been several tunnels added, built, or expanded since the first one was constructed. The river now discharges into the Moskva River through two tunnels near Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge and Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge.^[1]

9 The Senne
Brussels

One of the defining moments in the history of Brussels was the covering of the Senne. The city was built along the Senne, and it crossed Brussels from one end to the other.

Many industries began to move into the city, and the river quickly turned into an open-air sewer that overflowed during most rains. The water became heavily polluted and produced a strong foul odor across Brussels. Constant flooding and a cholera epidemic were the main reasons for the Senne’s demise.^[2]

After city officials decided that it was time to vault the river, the construction lasted only four years. The Senne was replaced by canals, and buildings were soon built over the buried river. The underground waterway was later diverted, and by 1976, the former water tunnels were converted for use by the Brussels subway system.

In 2000, the first modern wastewater treatment plant came into service to help the Senne regain its original role. A second treatment plant was up and running by 2007.

8 The River Fleet
London

Snaking under the streets of Holborn, King’s Cross, and Camden is the River Fleet, London’s lost river. It is the largest of London’s mysterious lost subterranean rivers.

It was called the “hollow stream” by the Anglo-Saxons. Even before that, it was a major river used by the Romans. They relied on it as a major water supply because many butchers, brewers, and mills needed the water.

As the years passed, London developed into a large industrial area and the clean water started disappearing. The river was heavily polluted and began to stink.^[3]

After the Great Fire of London in 1666, there was a proposal to widen the river to act as a firebreak. The idea was rejected. Instead, the River Fleet was converted into a canal, which was unpopular and unused.

It was eventually covered and incorporated into the sewer system. Locals claim that the waters can be heard flowing through Clerkenwell, and the Fleet waters can be seen discharging into the Thames on certain days.

7 Tibbetts Brook
New York City

Just north of the Bronx is the beginning of Tibbetts Brook, and it flows into a small lake at Van Cortlandt Park. More of a stream than a river, the water then disappears underground and flows through a brick sewer. However, it is considered one of the underground rivers that New York City is working to daylight.

The Native Americans once inhabited this region and used the stream for water and food. They named the brook Mosholu (“smooth or small stones”) because it flowed over these types of stones.

In 1691, Jacobus Van Cortlandt dammed the portion that flowed through his property, creating the Van Cortlandt Lake. Water from the lake was used to power a gristmill and sawmill.

Years later, the city acquired the property that is now known as Van Cortlandt Park. There are currently efforts underway to daylight Tibbetts Brook. The project would help bring the stream back to the surface between the lake and Harlem River instead of having it run through a sewer.^[4]

6 Park River
Hartford, Connecticut

Hundreds of years ago, a river flowed through Hartford, Connecticut. We’re not talking about the Connecticut River but instead the smaller and less popular Park River.

It was first used as a source for mills and other factories, but it soon turned into an industrial and human waste dumping ground. It is also commonly known as “Hog River” because of the several farms with pigs that lined the river.

Due to the massive pollution of Park River, the local government decided to bury the river beneath the city with concrete tunnels and drainage ditches. Begun in 1940, it was one of the largest, most expensive projects ever undertaken by the Army Corps of Engineers.^[5]

It took four decades and more than $100 million to complete, but the river now runs under Hartford. The upper part of Park River is exposed and open to the public, but the underground section is off-limits to visitors trying to catch a glimpse of the lost river.

5 Wien River
Vienna

The Wien is a river in Austria that flows through the city of Vienna. After devastating floods that were often accompanied by cholera, concrete was poured to act as the riverbeds.

The water was diverted underground and is now mostly covered by the city and integrated into the sewer system. In 2013, the City of Vienna approved plans that would build three separate terraces along the river.^[6]

Stadtpark, Vienna’s first public park, is located on the bank of the Wien River and features beautiful landscapes, artistic sculptures, and shady pathways.

4 River Bievre
Paris

The Bievre is a 36-kilometer (22 mi) river that flows into the Seine in Paris. It has long been covered over and diverted down tunnels into the sewer system once it reaches the city.

The river once flowed into the Seine within the city, but it was later diverted to cascade into it further downriver. Several industries along the water created pollution that caused the covering and redirection of the Bievre.^[7]

Restoring the Bievre has been a topic of discussion for many years, and several organizations have promoted this work. Many hope that the daylighting of the river will occur in the near future to help create a new habitat for plants and animals. They also believe that exposing the buried river will reduce flood risks and forge new “green corridors” through urban areas.

3 Sunswick Creek
New York City

A freshwater stream flowing through Queens is known as Sunswick Creek. Scholars believe that the name may have come from a Native American word meaning “woman chief.” In the 1800s, Sunswick Creek and its marshy surroundings became polluted from sewage and industrial discharge. By 1879, the marshes were drained and the creek was either filled in or incorporated into the sewage system.

The burial process of Sunswick Creek apparently occurred in multiple phases. Urban explorers have captured several photographs of the large sewer-like pipes through which the water now flows. The creek still runs below modern streets. If you are standing near the former Somer Piano Factory building on Vernon near Socrates Sculpture Garden, you can hear the creek roaring!^[8]

2 The Cheonggyecheon
Seoul

The restoration of the Cheonggyecheon proved that a green oasis can be placed inside a concrete jungle. It was once the main river flowing through Seoul, and many houses were built along the stream. Trash, waste, and other pollution eventually blanketed the waters and became an eyesore for the city. The Cheonggyecheon was then covered with concrete as an elevated highway took its place.

Around the year 2000, government leaders promised to remove the freeway and restore the Cheonggyecheon. The traffic-filled elevated freeway has now been transformed into a 5.8-kilometer-long (3.6 mi) stream corridor filled with natural beauty.^[9]

The restoration project provides flood protection for up to a 200-year flood event. It also contributed to a 15.1 percent increase in bus ridership, a 3.3 percent rise in subway ridership, and a 30–50 percent surge in the price of land for properties within 50 meters (164 ft) of the restoration.

The Cheonggyecheon restoration project, which attracts 64,000 visitors daily (including about 1,400 foreign tourists), is known as one of the greatest daylightings of a river in history.

1 Bradford Beck River
England

Once a clear and open river, Bradford Beck now flows through beautiful, arched foundations beneath Bradford, England. The river system was once used to power corn mills and fulling mills, and Bradford grew to be the center of the world’s wool industry.

By 1840, raw sewage and industrial discharge filled the beck. People in the area continued to drink the water and eventually saw outbreaks of typhoid and cholera. Life expectancy in Bradford was one of the lowest in the country.

By 1870, Bradford Beck was placed in a culvert and built over, hiding the river from clear view. Water quality has greatly improved since the river was forced underground, but there has been little improvement to the physical character of the river.^[10]

Daylighting the beck will not be an easy task due to the many buildings under which the river runs. There are 15 plaques located across the city that mark the route of the hidden river. Each plaque carries a couplet of a poem about the river. The first plaque is located alongside Bradford Live, and the final plaque can be found across the road from the Broadway.

I’m just another bearded guy trying to write my way through life. www.MDavidScott.com

People have been getting tattoos for all of recorded history. We usually think of tattoos as an expression of culture and identity, but they’re not always used this way. History is full of forced tattooing, often to punish people or to mark them as property. Below are some of the more unsavory stories of people being inked without their consent.

10 Ancient Greece

Slaves who misbehaved in ancient Greece were often tattooed with the name of their crime. This was used instead of branding because a more wordy crime like “theft and aggravated assault” would take long time to brand and could put the victim’s life at risk. As slaves were only valuable to their owners alive, tattooing provided a happy (if still upsetting) medium. Similar tattoos were given to free citizens found guilty of crimes.

When the island of Samos was at war with Athens, each side tattooed its prisoners of war to mark them as conquered. Athenians marked Samian prisoners with owls, a symbol of the city’s patron goddess Athena. Samians retaliated by marking their Athenian prisoners with a samaina, a kind of Samian ship. The forehead was an especially dehumanizing place to tattoo a captive because of the increased pain and the fact that it was hard to cover up. (Sweatbands weren’t too common back in the day.)

9 Byzantine Empire

In AD 793, the Armeniac province revolted against the Byzantine Empire. The rebels were defeated by Emperor Constantine VI, who killed their leaders and punished the survivors with fines and confiscations. To add ink to injury, he had at least 1,000 of them tattooed with the phrase “Armeniakon traitor.”

A few decades later, another emperor punished two monks charged with idolatry by tattooing them with 12 lines of iambic verse. The subject of this painful poem? The story of their crime and its punishment. Just like the Greeks, both emperors had these punishing marks inked into their subjects’ foreheads for maximum awkwardness at family gatherings.

8 China

An important rule of Confucianism is avoiding damage to the body, as it is a gift received from one’s parents. Permanently marking the skin is shameful not just to an individual but to their whole family. This made tattooing a serious punishment in historical China.

Penal codes from the Song and Yuan dynasties list the crimes that could result in tattooing. If someone committed a crime punishable by banishment, they were given a square shape behind the ear. If flogging was in order, the shape was round. When a criminal had already been flogged three times, the tattoo was put on the face.

The Chinese were no strangers to the old “spell out the crime” gimmick, either. Cheating couples caught more than once were facially tattooed with the phrase “committed licentious acts two times” before being exiled. That might seem like a lot to fit on a face until you remember that each word was just one character. Either way, it wasn’t fun.

7 Japan

Like the Chinese, the Japanese have historically placed value on keeping the body unmarked for the sake of family and honor. In early modern Japan, tattooing was reserved for the most serious crimes, as being tattooed meant you were permanently ostracized from your family and community. Designs included bars, crosses, circles, and in one region, the pictograph for “dog.” Criminals were commonly marked on (you guessed it) the forehead.

However, in the case of Japan, the tattooed misfits had the last laugh. The end of the 17th century saw the rise of decorative tattooing in Japan, and many criminals covered their penal tattoos with colorful designs. Tattooing is still often associated with criminals in Japan thanks to the Yakuza, who wear full-body ink as a mark of pride and honor.

6 Australian Convicts

During the 19th century, the British government tattooed and branded inmates to enforce the idea that the state was “all-knowing” and had total control over them. Many inmates sent to the Australian penal colony showed up already marked as criminals. However, some of them flipped this around by accessorizing their tattoos. One man named Aaron Page turned the “D” on his chest (marking him as a deserter) into a Union Jack. This was clever because it concealed a symbol of treason with one of patriotism.

British authorities in Australia soon grew wise to this practice and ordered that convicts never be tattooed at night, as that gave them free time to pick at the fresh scab and change the tattoo.

5 Olive Oatman

In 1856, a white woman was found living with a group of Mohave near Fort Yuma, California. Her name was Olive Oatman, and most of her family had been killed by the Yavapai tribe while heading west to find a new home. She was taken captive and sold to the Mohave, with whom she lived for four years. During this time, she was given several blue lines on her chin. When she returned to white society, Oatman publicly lectured about her captivity across the country. During her lectures, she claimed that her tattoos were “slave marks” given by the Mohave to their captives.

Long after Oatman’s death, historians concluded that her tattoos were actually the same style given to all Mohave women. They were a mark of belonging, not captivity. Whether or not Oatman’s tattoos were consensual, it’s easy to see why she would claim they weren’t. US society in the 1800s would much rather believe that a white woman was held captive by a native tribe than that she became one of them.

4 John Rutherford

John Rutherford was a performer who toured Britain in the 1800s, showing off a large collection of tattoos on his face and body. While people would admire the tattoos, he would regale them with his story of being shipwrecked in New Zealand and taken captive by the indigenous Maori people. He told of how they ate his shipmates and forcibly tattooed him with chisels and sharks’ teeth.

Most historians agree that this story is even more full of baloney than Olive Oatman’s. Rutherford was likely a deserter who jumped ship, and most of his tattoos were Tahitian, not Maori. If he had actually gotten all of those tattoos at once, he probably would have died of blood loss.

This story makes the list not because it’s true but because stories like Rutherford’s were very common. Performers made whole careers of telling how they had been taken hostage and tattooed by savage tribes. Forced-tattoo stories were a staple of freak shows well into the 20th century, and anyone who’s still reading this list can understand why they were so popular.

3 Soviet Prisoners

Tattooing was so popular among Russian criminals during the Soviet era that there is a book called the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia. Prisoners in Siberian gulags would tattoo each other to show their defiance of authority and membership in elite thieves’ societies. They also forcibly tattooed those who had wronged them.

Common forced tattoos included the phrases “enemy of the people” and “I am a b—h.” A forced tattoo meant that a prisoner had been expelled from a thieves’ society and was nepriskasaemye, or “untouchable.” Anyone who did business with him would become infected from his dishonor. Given the unsanitary conditions in the gulags, they might get infected from his tattoo as well.

2 Auschwitz

The most infamous story of involuntary tattooing comes from the Holocaust. At the Auschwitz concentration camp, prisoners selected for work were tattooed with serial numbers. These numbers could be used to identify them in case of death or escape. The first group to get tattooed were Soviet prisoners of war brought to the camp in 1941. A serial number was punched into the chest of each victim with a metal stamp, and ink was rubbed into the wound. These tattoos faded quickly, so Nazi officials switched to more conventional needles and began tattooing on the arm.

By 1943, most prisoners at Auschwitz were being tattooed with serial numbers. Jewish prisoners’ tattoos often included a triangle, and those given to Roma contained a “Z” for “Ziguener,” the German word for “gypsy.” The total number of serial numbers assigned to prisoners is estimated at 400,000. Many believe that tattooing is forbidden by Jewish law or that you can’t be buried in a Jewish cemetery if you have a tattoo. This is debated by scholars, and it is thought that some of Jewish opposition to tattooing comes from the trauma of the concentration camps.

1 Punjab Police

As much as we’d like to believe involuntary tattooing is a thing of the past, it has happened more recently than you’d think. In 1993, four women were detained by the Punjab Police in Amritsar, India. They were accused of involvement with a bootlegging operation that had attacked police during a raid. During the week they were in custody, policemen tattooed each woman on the forehead with the words jeb katri, meaning “pickpocket.”

Unlike most of the stories in this list, this one actually ends with justice for the tattooed. In 1994, the Punjab government arranged plastic surgery to remove the tattoos and paid each woman 50,000 rupees. In 2016, a special Indian court found the officers guilty and sentenced each of them to jail time, terming their crime “inhuman.” Maybe we have made progress after all.

Anthropology student by day, list nerd by night. Interested in history, language, nature, and other vague topics.

Before Peter the Great, who ruled from 1682 to 1725, Russia was lagging years behind the rest of the world. While the Enlightenment was bringing the European world into a new age, Russia was stagnant, until Tsar Peter I dragged it kicking and screaming into the modern world.

Peter the Great did some incredible things for Russia, but he was mainly working off the idea that if the Europeans were doing something, Russia should be doing it, too. And that led to some absolutely insane decisions.

For better or for worse, Peter the Great brought Russia into the modern world—but he did it in some of the strangest ways possible.

10 The Terrible Disguises Of Peter The Great

Peter the Great was determined to make Russia a nation that rivaled the greatest European powers. He wanted Russia to do everything the Europeans did. First, though, he had to figure out what that was. So, Peter decided to make a tour of Europe—in disguise.

It was a fine idea, in theory, except that Peter was 203 centimeters (6’8”) tall. The man towered above every person he saw, and he traveled with an entourage of 250 Russian nobles. So when a gigantic, wealthy Russian man walked around telling people he was a migrant laborer, absolutely nobody was fooled.

The tsar spent months working as a shipbuilder in the Netherlands. He told his employer that he was a foreign craftsman. They didn’t believe him. Everybody knew who he was. But, mostly for the novelty, they let Peter work there, anyway.

Whole crowds of Dutch citizens would come out to watch Peter the Great building ships and living in peasant quarters. As a man who grew up in a castle, he was probably doing the worst job at it that they’d ever seen. He worked as a laborer long enough to help build a ship. If he didn’t realize that his disguise wasn’t working by then, it must have hit him when his boss asked if he wanted the ship sent to his palace.

9 The Beard Tax

When Peter the Great returned to Russia, he was determined to make some changes. From there on out, they were going to do things the European way, and Peter wasn’t going to waste any time. During the reception to welcome him home, Peter hugged his noblemen. Then, without a word of warning, he pulled out a razor and chopped off their beards.

Having a beard became a crime shortly after. This was a major a change: Until then, Russian had viewed a long, flowing beard as a sign of manliness. But the Europeans had made fun of Peter for his, so the beards had to go.

Anyone with a beard had to pay a tax of 100 rubles each year. Peasants and clergyman were excepted, but if a peasant entered a city with beard, he paid a fine. People who paid the tax were given a coin that read, “The beard is a useless burden!” to let the police know they were legally permitted to have one. If they were caught without the coin, the police could forcibly shave them on the streets.

For all of his hatred for beards, though, Peter the Great loved mustaches. For the men of the Russian military, he set out another decree: Beards were forbidden, but mustaches were mandatory.

8 The All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod Of Fools And Jesters

Up until then, the Russian Orthodox Church had been led by the patriarch of Moscow. Peter the Great changed all that. He was a raging drinker and partier, and he didn’t care for all the pious stuff. So he replaced Russia’s religious leaders with a new group called the Holy Synod, filled with people he could control.

He didn’t particularly respect his own church, either. Around the same time, he set up another group called the All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters, and their job was to get as drunk as possible as often as they could. This was Peter’s old drinking group, now reformed to let the church know exactly what he thought of it. He even made one of his friends the “prince-pope” of the All-Drunken Synod and had him do a mock Stations of the Cross before they all got hammered.

People weren’t thrilled. Some started to say that Peter the Great was the antichrist himself. But the people in power didn’t mind. Eventually, every powerful man in the government was part of the All-Drunken Synod—including some of the clergy.

7 The Medal Of Drunkenness

Peter the Great might have been a raging alcoholic, but he didn’t want Europeans coming to Russia and seeing drunken peasants sleeping on the streets. He was determined to fix the drinking problem—in the silliest ways possible.

Anyone caught on the streets intoxicated was forced to wear an 8-kilogram (18 lb) cast iron medal around his neck for the next week. It looked exactly like a medal of honor, except that it read “For drunkenness,” and it was incredibly heavy.

The Medal of Drunkenness didn’t do much to curb alcoholism in Russia, but Peter probably wasn’t too worried. His other rules made it pretty clear that he thought getting drunk was a God-given right. In another law, Peter decreed that a woman could be flogged if she made her husband leave the tavern before he was done drinking.

6 The Museum Of Deformities

In Europe, Peter the Great had seen countless cabinets of curiosities. These were the era’s freak shows, and he found them incredibly fascinating. Putting freaks on display, he believed, was a scientific and educational tool that would enrich the country, so he had a museum built as soon as he got back.

His museum was called the Kunstkamera, and it was full of the strangest things he could find. It had two-headed babies preserved in jars, deformed animal skeletons, and more. It even held live exhibits where children with birth defects would meet and greet the visitors.

For Peter, it wasn’t just exploitation. It was education. When he opened it, he declared, “I want people to look and learn!” The press agreed. In France, the papers spread the news about his museum of oddities. Impressed, they wrote, “Tsar Peter Alexeyevich is intent on enlightening his country.”

5 Mandatory Pants

In this era, Russia still wore its traditional clothing. The men would step out dressed in long, thick robes with tall hats on their heads—until Peter the Great forced them to put on some pants. “No one,” Peter declared, “is to wear Russian dress.” From that day forward, it was law: “Western dress shall be worn by all!”

Every piece of clothing was dictated. There were laws on what type of underwear you could wear. There were punishments in place for wearing shoes in the bed. Men were required to wear French-cut coats with German-cut clothes underneath, and they could be punished if they didn’t.

Like his beard tax, Peter introduced his mandatory pants laws by pouncing up behind unsuspecting noblemen and cutting the sleeves off their robes. Then he laughed at them and said, “Now you won’t be dragging your clothes through your food!”

He certainly changed fashion, but it wasn’t exactly well-thought-out. Those thick cloaks had kept Russians warm through the winter. Now, dressed in German underwear, they were struggling not to freeze to death.

4 The Russian Flag

The modern Russian flag was Peter the Great’s creation, too. It’s a bold but simple design: three stripes, with white above, red below, and blue between, colors carefully chosen to symbolize . . . uh . . . absolutely nothing.

Russia got its flag because when Peter was in Europe, he was delighted by the way Dutch ships had little flags on them. Russian ships, he decided, needed to have little flags on them, too. He didn’t really know what to hoist, though, so he just moved the colors on the Dutch flag around and had his ships use that as their flag.

At first, the new flag was only used on ships, but in time, it turned into the country’s national flag. Soon, the whole country was marching under those three colors, most unaware that the patriotic symbol of their nation was just an old emperor trying to be like the Netherlands.

3 The Construction Of St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, too, was just another attempt to copy the Dutch. Peter the Great ordered his men to build the city on top of a swamp and demanded that it look as much like Amsterdam as possible.

His dream was to make it Russia’s most European city. He even imagined that people would travel around St. Petersburg by drifting down the canals in boats, like in Venice. And he was willing to work his people to death to get it.

One of the first buildings constructed in the city was the Peter and Paul Fortress. Over 20,000 laborers worked on it, some being required to work with their bare hands. Thousands of people died building it.

To make sure he had enough stone, Peter made it illegal to build any stone buildings anywhere in Russia other than St. Petersburg. All stones, Peter demanded, were to be sent to the city.

Peter was thrilled with the result. He even made St. Petersburg the capital of the nation. Others, though, were less impressed. Dostoyevsky, for one, called it the “most artificial city in the world.”

2 Mandatory Nicotine Habits

Tobacco had been banned by the previous tsars. The Russian Church viewed smoking as an “abomination to God,” and they dealt with it severely. A person caught smoking could be exiled to Siberia or worse. Some had their nostrils torn open or their lips cut off to keep them from ever smoking again.

Peter the Great, though, took a different approach. He didn’t just legalize smoking—he insisted on it. Every Russian was encouraged to smoke as often as possible. Some members of the nobility were even required to smoke under the decree of the tsar.

As with everything else Peter did, smoking was something he’d seen the Europeans do. It was also an opportunity to get them into the country. He let foreign companies set up tobacco plantations in Russia and started building tobacco-manufacturing plants around the nation.

Cigarettes, though, are never complete without caffeine, so Peter brought coffee to Russia, too. The Russians thought it was disgusting. They called it “smut syrup,” but Peter pushed it hard enough that pretty soon, there were enough coffee drinkers to open Russia’s first coffee house.

1 The Dwarf Wedding

Peter the Great loved people with dwarfism. In his time, treating little people like jesters was normal, but he took it to extremes. He would get little people to hide naked inside pies and then jump out to surprise people for a laugh.

He wanted more dwarfs—so he tried to breed them. He had a little person in his court, Iakim Volkov, married to another dwarf, hoping to breed a race of little people. But he wanted it to be a big affair. He ordered every little person in Russia to attend.

About 70 little people made it, and he dressed them all in the latest Western fashions, lined with gold. This wasn’t a gesture of respect. Most of these dwarfs were poor, uneducated peasants. His attendants deliberately loaded them up with alcohol and then laughed while the peasant dwarfs clumsily stumbled through dances and erupted into drunken fistfights.

Peter thought it was hilarious—but more than that, he thought it was an allegory for Russia. Russia, he believed, was like those drunken little people. They had the clothes, and they were doing the dances, but they were just playing at being Europeans.

Disney attracts hundreds of millions of guests to their world-famous resorts each year, and they rarely close the doors to one of their parks. They are one of the few places around the world that is open 365 days per year to guests, but there have been a handful of events that have sucked the magic right out of the parks. Here are ten rare instances where Disney was forced to close their doors.

Top 10 Ways To Get Banned From A Disney Or Universal Theme Park

10 September 11th, Disneyland & Disney World, 2001

Every American will always remember the terrible attacks to their nation on September 11, 2001. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives that day, and 25,000 more were injured. A sudden urge of panic swept across the U.S. after the attacks, and nobody could plan for what might happen next. Disney made the quick decision to close their parks in Florida and California in concern that the resorts were on the terrorists’ target list.

Disney employees said they were told about what happened and that the park would be closing. An announcement was made over the public address system at the parks saying, “Due to circumstances beyond our control, the park is now closed.” The restaurants, snack bars, attractions, and shops shut down forcing the guests into the streets. The employees were then guided to lead the guests towards the nearest exits, and they were advised to not tell guests the reasoning unless they asked. The parks opened as normal the next morning.^[1]

9 Hurricane Frances, Disney World, 2004

Less than a month after Hurricane Charley hit Florida, Hurricane Frances caused more destruction for the state. Frances caused damage to Florida’s citrus crop, closed several schools, airports, and businesses, and cancelled college football games. Frances ultimately caused 50 deaths and more than $10 billion in damages.

Disney World resorts in Orlando were forced to close their doors Saturday and Sunday and open back Monday with a limited schedule. Closing for an entire weekend is costly for a place like Disney, and Frances even occurred during Labor Day weekend. This would normally be one of their busiest weekends of the year, but instead the resort missed out on valuable tourism dollars. Disney World fully opened back on Tuesday and only saw minimal damage.^[2]

8 Yippies Protest, Disneyland, 1970

The Youth International Party was a radical counter-culture free speech and anti-war group, which were better known as the Yippies for short. In 1970, the group planned a takeover of Disneyland and handed out leaflets for the event. The Anaheim police prepared for the group by undergoing riot training, and every city in the county sent police to help inside the park that day. Disneyland employees were given certain tasks for the day, and managers periodically walked around telling groups of Yippies to be respectful of other guests in the park.

The day was mostly calm besides a couple of incidents, and Disneyland employees began to relax after realizing they may have overestimated the threat to the park. Around 5 p.m., a couple of groups of Yippies headed towards Tom Sawyer’s Island where they invaded Fort Wilderness. After causing trouble in the park, Disneyland announced to their guests that the park would be closing. The police then began pushing the loud group down main street towards the exit. Heated words were exchanged, an American flag was pulled down, and several Yippies were arrested. Disney experienced some minor property damage, but the outcome was not as crazy as they expected.^[3]

7 Hurricane Matthew, Disney World, 2016

In 2016, Walt Disney World closed it’s four major theme parks, Epcot, the Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom due to Hurricane Matthew battering the Atlantic Coast. Disney also closed Disney Springs, the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, miniature golf courses, and their two water parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. They all closed Thursday night and did not reopen until Saturday morning.

It is a rare occurrence that Disney closes a park, but Hurricane Matthew had already devastated Haiti and other areas before making landfall in Florida with winds of more than 100 mph. Matthew ripped through the Caribbean killing hundreds of people, mostly in Haiti. Florida saw 12 deaths from the strong hurricane and more than $2 billion in damages.^[4]

6 Hurricane Charley, Disney World, 2004

The arrival of Hurricane Charley on Florida’s coast caused several area theme parks to close their doors early for the day, including Walt Disney World. Disney’s Animal Kingdom never even opened for the day. This marked only the third time that Disney World had closed the park to the public, and they quickly reopened their doors the next day.

Hurricane Charley was the first of four separate hurricanes to strike Florida in 2004. It was the strongest hurricane to hit the United states since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Florida was heavily impacted by the hurricane with nine direct fatalities, 20 indirect fatalities, and several injuries.

Property damage in Florida from Hurricane Charley exceeded $5 billion. Disney World saw minor damage from the hurricane, and crews worked through the night in order to have the park ready for guests to enjoy a magical vacations with their friends and family.^[5]

10 Disney Characters With Controversial Histories

5 Earthquake, Tokyo Disney, 2011

In March of 2011, a devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake rocked Japan causing damage to the Northern part of the country. When the earthquake first happened, guests of Tokyo Disney and Tokyo DisneySea were told to shelter in place at the park. All guests were evacuated from buildings and were given shelter in the park’s restaurants.

Tokyo Disney ended up closing for five weeks due to a power shortage that was caused by issues at Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant. The first day that the theme park opened back up, 10,000 guests were lined up early to be the first in the park. They still closed early at 6 p.m. to conserve power, and DisneySea still remained closed for a short time.^[6]

4 Terrorist Attacks, Disneyland Paris, 2015

Terrorists attacks across Paris took the lives of more than 130 people on November 13, 2015. Suicide bombers struck outside of a football match, several mass shootings took place at restaurants, and shooters carried out an attack at a concert. Ultimately more than 400 people were injured from the terrorist attacks.

Disneyland Paris closed following the attacks. They initially closed due to security concerns and to show some solidarity. Two parks at Disneyland Paris, Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park, remained closed from November 14th to November 17th as part of a national three-day mourning period. The theme parks reopened on November 18th with normal business hours.^[7]

3 Pres. John F. Kennedy Assassination, Disneyland, 1963

America lost its 35th President on November 22, 1963. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade with his wife Jackie Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally, and Nellie Connally. Kennedy was shot that day by Lee Harvey Oswald from a nearby building. Disneyland in California closed the park the following day in observance of national mourning. Kennedy is known to have visited Disneyland one time as a Senator in 1959.^[8]

2 Hurricane Irma, Disney World, 2017

Hurricane Irma made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane and passed just West of Orlando. Florida saw more than 80 deaths related to the hurricane and billions of dollars in damages. Disney World didn’t take a major hit from the hurricane, but the parks did close for a couple of days.

The park didn’t lose power, but high wind and rain hit the park causing several trees to fall. Some buildings at the resort also reported leaks following the storm, and several transformers exploded near Disney’s Contemporary Resort. The parking areas at Disney World served as a staging area for utility crews working to restore power to the area. All four parks at Disney World and Disney Springs reopened to the public the following Tuesday.^[9]

1 COVID-19, All Parks, 2020

The world was surprised by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, that has now turned into a pandemic. As of June 2020, more than 7 million people have contracted the virus and more than 400,000 people have died worldwide as the numbers continue to rise. Several countries enforced some type of stay-at-home laws causing most of the world to quarantine at home.

Disney was forced to shut the doors to their parks all around the world. Tokyo Disneyland closed at the end of February, Disney World and Disneyland Paris closed on March 15, and Disneyland closed on March 16. Shanghai Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort closed earlier in the year, but Shanghai Disney has partially reopened and is opening different areas of the park in phases. The other Disney parks are working on plans to reopen the resorts in phases with limited guests and workers.^[10]

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