What’s that above the Saluda River? Columbia zoo’s Skyline ride takes flight
After years of discussion, planning and construction, it is now possible to fly across the Saluda River.
Riverbanks Zoo and Garden has officially launched the Saluda Skyride, a new attraction that will transport visitors across a picturesque section of the river in the middle of the park.
“The river has always been at the heart of the zoo and gardens, but it hasn’t been the heart of the visitor experience,” Lochlan Wooten, Riverbanks chief operating officer, said at an event Thursday that moved VIP guests across the skyline for the first time. Now the skyride will place its river views at the center of that experience, while making much easier for visitors to move between attractions.
Nineteen aerial gondolas are now moving passengers across a 1,700-foot span over the Saluda River. The gondolas, ordered from Switzerland earlier this year, were conceived as a way to more quickly move visitors from the zoo side of the river to the botanical gardens on the other side. But executives at Riverbanks hope the ride will become an attraction in itself.
The Saluda Skyride is now open to the public at no additional cost after admission to the zoo. The ride will have what Wooten called a “soft opening” for its first two weeks as they work out any kinks in their plans for transporting as many as 2,000 people an hour across the river, giving staff a chance to “take a break” as needed, Wooten said.
The journey from one side of the river to the other will take about two and a half minutes with a gondola picking up another round of visitors every 20 seconds. The ride will move at a much faster clip than than the foot traffic and mechanized tram rides over the pedestrian bridge currently connecting both sides of the park.
The arrival of the Skyride will also mean the end of the tram, Wooten said, although the bridge will remain for anyone who wants to walk the route.
“It’s a much greener option, because our trams run on diesel fuel,” Wooten said.
The Skyride will operate daily during zoo hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Manufactured by aerial lift maker Leitner-Poma and imported from Switzerland last spring, the gondolas can seat a maximum of eight passengers, and include raisable seats to make extra room for wheelchairs or children’s strollers. The zoo can add or remove gondolas from the line depending on demand, since each cab is detachable for maintenance and cleaning. Operators can also pause or stop the line on command, as The State learned while attaching a GoPro camera to this reporter’s cabin.
The skyline is a part of Riverbanks’ multimillion-dollar Bridge to the Wild expansion project. The current phase is drawing funding from an $80 million bond from Richland and Lexington counties, with $44.8 million coming from Richland County and $35.2 million getting kicked in from Lexington County.
Alongside Thursday’s unveiling of the Skyride were renderings of future additions to Riverbanks that will take advantage of the riverside, including a primate habitat, space for red pandas and an enclosure for a new Sumatran tiger that will be built on the garden side of the river, along with a planned restaurant and event center looking down on the river and freshly planted vegetation. A new lion habitat is also planned for the zoo side of the new ride.
This story was originally published August 29, 2025 at 10:13 AM.
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