Riverfront Spokane

Welcome to the Numerica SkyRide at Riverfront. For nearly a half century, Spokane's visitors and natives have enjoyed this 15-20 minute round trip ride over the Spokane Falls Dam and 200-foot descent into the Spokane River Gorge. The SkyRide was installed for the 1974 Spokane World Expo which hosted 5.2 million visitors from all over the world. It featured, among many other points of interest, two skyrides: this existing gondola and a second chairlift ride that passed over the entire length of the fairgrounds. The chairlift ride was sponsored by A&W Root Beer and was named, appropriately enough, "Sky Float." After the Expo, the Sky Float was removed but the gondolas remained. The Numerica SkyRide has been named one of the top 12 scenic cable rides in the world by both Conde Nast Traveler Magazine and the Daily Traveler.

As we approach our first stop, on the south side of the gondola you will see Spokane's City Hall. Constructed in 1929 as the Montgomery Ward Department Store, this Art Deco masterpiece has served as Spokane's City Hall since 1979. Below us is the Spokane Tribal Gathering Place Plaza adjacent to City Hall. The Spokane Tribe of Indians lived at the Spokane Falls for over a thousand years and are commemorated in this area. Until 1933 and the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River, the tribe fished at the falls here during the annual migration run when the chinook, sockeye and steelhead salmon returned to the Spokane River from the Pacific Ocean to spawn. The plaza is a multi-purpose space for visitors to congregate, communicate and celebrate much like the ancient people who gathered here many centuries ago. With handicapped access, attractive water features, native plants and beautiful vistas of the falls, the plaza is the ideal place day or night to view the Spokane River Gorge. A 23-foot-tall torch and LED lighting illuminates the area at night. As the gondola begins its descent to Huntington Park, to the north you will notice the Spokane County's magnificent French Provincial style courthouse. This nation-wide famous structure was built in 1893 when 29-year-old W.A. Ritchie's idea was awarded first place in a contest to submit a courthouse design. Ritchie had no formal education as an architect and had learned the basics of design through a correspondence course. The design was essentially a copy of two 16th century chateaux in the Loire Valley of France.

Directly below us is Avista Corporation's Huntington Park. Organized in 1889 as Washington Water Power Company, Avista now serves a customer area of over 30,000 square miles in three states. The Spokane Falls have always been the company's major source of power for the city. The Spokane hydroelectric works originated in 1890 with the twenty-four-foot-high Spokane Dam spanning 200 feet across the river. In 1992, Avista replaced five of its generators with an underground state of the art turbine generator unit buried beneath Huntington Park. The Monroe Street hydroelectric plant and substation with its iconic green electric sign was built in 1910 and is still in operation. This beautiful area is attractively decorated with native basalt, plants and trees, a sculpture of Virgil Marchand's 12-foot-tall "Salmon Chief" on horseback and two other sculptures depicting Native Americans preparing their salmon catch. Look closely and you might see two of the park's "year-round" inhabitants – marmots and deer – scampering around. At the lower level of the park is the Confluence Plaza where visitors can enjoy a picnic and spectacular views. During the spring run-off, water flows over the dam at the rate of 31,000 cubic feet or 232,000 gallons per second. Scattered throughout Huntington Park are images depicting the hydroelectric process and ancient machinery from the past.

With the advent of the 1974 Spokane World Expo and its theme of "celebrating tomorrow's fresh new environment," the city was dedicated to a future of clean air, renewable resources and clean water. With that mission, Spokane has dedicated fifty years of resources and taxpayer initiatives toward a livable and green resource in the Spokane River. The Spokane River Gorge that begins at the falls, continues in beautiful panoramas for eighty miles to the west where it empties into the great Columbia River. Above the northern gorge rim toward the west is one of Spokane's newest restaurant, theater and shopping venues known as Kendall Yards. Stretching from Riverfront Park, to the west along Kendall Yards, across the Sandifur Pedestrian Bridge and back east through Peaceful Valley is the Great Gorge Loop Trail for walkers, joggers and bicycles. The trail offers day and lighted night strolls along the gorge with beautiful scenery right here in the middle of the city. As we make the turn, we will pass under the Monroe Street Bridge – the third bridge by that name built on this spot. Spokane is a city of bridges. There are 23 bridges across the Spokane and Little Spokane Rivers and Latah Creek – all within the metro area. Nine are within Riverfront Park.

As the gondola proceeds back eastward toward the Park, on the south bank of the river, you can see the twin spires of one of Spokane's two magnificent Cathedrals, along with an extensive public area called "A Place of Truths Plaza." This park is the cap to a huge underground tank called CSO Tank 26. It's one of over two dozen huge underground tanks constructed by the City of Spokane to capture water runoff from big rain and snow events. It keeps the overflow drainage from polluting the Spokane River. This tank alone cost $32 million and holds 2.2 million gallons of runoff – enough to fill four Olympic-sized swimming pools. From the underground tanks, contaminated water is pumped to the City's sewerage treatment plant for purification before being released into the river. The construction of the CSO Tank presented the opportunity to build the new downtown park over this spot, with sculptures and extensive geological and historic references, along with seating and observation platforms. The Spokane River provided food and medicine for the ancient people but was also considered a sacred place. There are some who sense the spiritual presence of the salmon still today. In 1995 Spokane Coeur d'Alene Indian poet Sherman Alexie's poem "The Place Where Ghosts of Salmon Jump" was inscribed along a spiral pavement overlooking the falls, a feature of A Place of Truths Plaza. Sculptures in the plaza include Native American salmon fishers, a bear, deer and, of course, salmon.

Just to the north of the gondola, next to The Gathering Place Plaza, is the Mobius Children's Museum, sparking the curiosity of children of all ages. On the far south side of the gondola is Spokane's downtown shopping center – River Park Square, with 820,000 square feet of retail shopping space and a variety of eating establishments. As the SkyRide returns to the starting point of the ride, this is a good opportunity to view some of the attractions of the newly renovated 100-acre Riverfront Spokane, a central feature of the downtown and the focus of many annual celebrations like Hoopfest, The Bloomsday Run and The Gathering at the Falls Powwow where over 200 Northwest Native American tribes gather to celebrate their collective and individual heritages and futures. To the south of the gondola, take a quick peek at the Numerica Skate Ribbon – a year-round facility for winter ice skating and roller wheel sports in the spring, summer and fall. To the east you can see the 1974 World Expo U.S. Pavilion, newly renovated for open-air and indoor events and spectacular evening light shows.

We hope you've enjoyed the SkyRide over the Falls. On behalf of Riverfront Spokane, we'd like to thank you for visiting. We hope you can take time to stroll through this 100-acre scenic park to experience all the beauty and family fun it has to offer. Have a great day.