Building Walt Disney World

once upon a time there was a man with a vision that man was Walt Disney and his vision was for a theme park like no other a whole new world of unique attractions hotels and even a planned community that was set new benchmarks in innovation and the City Planning though he never saw his vision completed Disney is now immortalized in one of the world's largest and most visited attractions this is the incredible construction story behind the Walt Disney World resource [Music] in 1959 following the success of their first theme park which opened in California in 1955 Walt Disney Productions began planning the development of a second resort in the United States with 75% of the u.s. population at that time living east of the Mississippi River a location on the East Coast was explored the new project was personally conceived and led by Walt Disney he dislikes the numerous businesses that had sprung up around his California Park and the lack of control he had over developments in close proximity to the resort with the second destination he set out to control a much larger area of land Walt Disney flew over potential sites near Bay Lake in Orlando Florida one of many locations he was reviewing in November 1963 the site was attractive for its proximity to Orlando International Airport then McCoy Air Force Base and the world developed road network which was set to be strengthened further with the construction of Florida's Turnpike and interstate 4 to avoid unwanted attention and press speculation the early development of Disney's 2nd Park took place in complete secrecy with even the notion that a second part was being considered being kept under wraps with the Orlando site selected Walt Disney Productions began quietly acquiring the land for their second resort in the early 1960s many owners were only too happy to let go of the land which was mostly swamp at the time the land acquisitions took place as distinctly separate transactions through a number of proxy companies some of these company names such as the Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation are now cast into a window above Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom park the agents brokering these deals were unaware who their ultimate client was and in some instances areas of swampland were required for as little as a hundred US dollars an acre knowing that recording of the first DS would ignite intense public scrutiny Disney delayed the filing of paperwork until a large enough portion of land was under contract and the property companies could be amalgamated under the Disney brand despite being undertaken by proxy companies as the land acquisitions became public in quick succession to each other rumors began circulating as to what such a large area could be useful newspapers at the time speculated that Henry Ford the Rockefellers or even NASA were behind the purchases Walt Disney Productions gently stoped these rumors through intermediaries and even announced a 50 million u.s. dollar investment in a California Park to throw people off the scent in October 1965 Walt Disney was asked about the land purchases directly in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel while Disney denied the claim his momentary look of shock when the question was first put to him led to the Sentinel publishing a theory that Disney were planning a major new park in Florida with the story breaking Walt Disney and then Florida Governor Hayden Byrnes fully announced talkers then described as the Florida project in November 1965 unfortunately just over a year after announcing the developments Walt Disney passed away from lung cancer [Music] Roy Disney warts brother and business partner delayed his retirement to oversee the first phase of his brothers vision [Music] in order for the resort to grow and succeed legislation was passed to make the land owned by Disney a special district containing two incorporated cities Bay Lake and really Creek known today as Lake Buena Vista this status gave Disney a degree of immunity from County and state land use laws it also allowed for the issuing of tax-free bonds to fund public projects within the districts in 1967 the district began construction of drainage canals to D water the vast site along with roadways and supporting infrastructure for the Magic Kingdom by 1971 that theme-park together with the first section of the resource monorail numerous golf courses and hotels were completed including the Contemporary Resort Polynesian Village and the Fort Wilderness campsite when the resort opens to the public on the 1st of October 1971 were Disney dedicated to his brother an au sin' that it would be officially known as Walt Disney World to ensure that the man who started it all would be remembered sadly Roy Disney himself passed away just three months after the park opened while the first phase of the park opened to much fanfare Disney were determined to continually grow the resort and never allow it to become dated maintaining a continuous pipeline of new attractions in its first decade Walt Disney World and his further golf courses and hotels in the Magic Kingdom vicinity as well as the village marketplace shopping districts now Disney Springs and the Walt Disney World Conference Center from inception Walt Disney had wanted to develop an ambitious Progress City within the resort district that would act as a blueprint for cities of the future this concept was abandoned by the board after Disney's death but later evolved into a version of walks idea known as the experimental prototype community of tomorrow or Epcot Epcot officially opened in 1982 becoming the second theme park at Walt Disney World famed for its World's Fair inspired future world exhibits and the internationally themed World Showcase the park is centered around a 55 meter 180 foot high geodesic dome known as spaceship earth the completion of Epcot oughta saw the monorail system extended and today the system runs for over 14 miles around the resort carrying a hundred and fifty thousand people every day in 1989 a Hollywood inspired park known as Disney's Hollywood Studios was added operating as both a theme park and an active production studio the facility contributed to a number of Disney's productions in the 1990s and early 2000s including Mullen and lilo and Stitch more recently the park has become home to the resorts latest attraction Toy Story land which opened in 2018 typhoon lagoon also opened in 1989 marking the resort's first step into water parks and was followed by Blizzard Beach in 1995 Disney's Animal Kingdom is the latest theme park to open at the resort dedicated to the natural world and conservation the attraction was opened in 1998 and has since continued to grow with Pandora the world of Avatar added in 2017 today walt disney world extends over a forty-three square mile 110 square kilometer area it features 30 themed hotels and has over 74,000 staff making it one of the largest employers in the United States with more than 50 million visitors annually since 2013 the resort's growth shows no signs of slowing down and even more attractions are currently under development Disney's acquisition of Marvel in 2009 and Lucasfilm in 2012 has given rise to Star Wars Galaxies edge currently under construction and due to open in Disney's Hollywood Studios in 2019 and a guardians of the galaxy attraction due to open at Epcot by 2021 the Fox Disney merger currently in the pipeline is also likely to generate new resource in the years ahead over the past 60 years this remarkable project has seen an area of swampland become one of the world's most visited destinations a powerful tribute to its founder Walt Disney and a symbol of what can be possible if you keep on believing if you enjoyed this video and would like to get more from the definitive video channel for construction subscribe to the b1n you [Music]

Channel: The B1M

Views: 955,314

Keywords: BIM, B1M, TheB1M, Construction, Disney, Walt Disney, Disneyland paris, shanghai disney, architecture, 20th century fox, Lucasfilm, engineering, florida, orlando, disneyland construction, disneyworld construction, building disneyland, disneyland, euro disney, The B1M, Fred Mills

Id: gmKWwPKJCTU

Length: 10min 22sec (622 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 27 2018