Warner Bros. Wants to Build a Tramway to the Hollywood Sign

While the Hollywood sign may be one of Los Angeles’s most well-known landmarks, it’s also one of the most contentious.

Griffith Park, where the sign is located, attracts about 10 million visitors every year. Residents of the nearby Hollywood Hills have long complained about people wandering onto their property or taking up parking spaces on the narrow streets.

Warner Bros. is pitching a solution. The film production studio wants to build a $100 million aerial tram.

In a letter to Los Angeles parks and legislative officials, Warner Bros. proposed building the “Hollywood Skyway.” The aerial tramway would start next to the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank and take tourists on a six-minute ride up the back of Mt. Lee. They would debark at a new visitors center and be able to walk on pathways to a viewing area.

The Los Angeles City Council will consider the proposal when it returns from summer recess, Reuters reported. If approved, the tramway would take about five years to construct. Warner Bros. would charge to ride the tramway and split revenue with the city of Los Angeles.

“There's going to be a lot of people pushing for the tram for the relief it will provide the local residents,” Gerry Hans, board member for the nonprofit group Friends of Griffith Park, told the Los Angeles Times. “But at the same time there are going to be people wanting to preserve Griffith Park for the great urban wilderness it is.”

This is not the first proposal for a tramway up to the Hollywood sign. Last year, philanthropist Alexander von Furstenberg floated the idea of building a gondola that would take visitors from the L.A. Zoo up close to the sign.