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3. The utilidors

At EPCOT, cars and essential utilities were to be safely hidden underground, rather than polluting and cluttering the surface. A highway would pass directly underneath the city center, so that cars and buses could travel through without being stopped by traffic lights. Trucks and other service vehicles would travel one level lower, with loading docks and service elevators connecting to businesses up above. Walt is also said to have been keen to hide "backstage" elements of his theme parks underground, having witnessed a Frontierland cowboy wandering through Tomorrowland at Disneyland - breaking the theme that he had so carefully constructed.

Utilidor map
The Magic Kingdom's utilidor network is extensive. Image: John Corigliano Flickr

Famously, the idea of hiding service elements and vehicles underground is one that Disney adopted for Walt Disney World's first theme park, the Magic Kingdom. The utilidor tunnels were among the first elements of the park to be constructed, and are actually located at ground level (placing them lower would have caused many issues, due to the water table in the Orlando region). They were covered over using seven million cubic yards of earth that was excavated during the creation of the artifical Seven Seas Lagoon that is located in front of the park. The underground tunnels cover an incredible 392,040 square feet. They span most of the park, with the exception of the part of New Fantasyland that was previously Mickey's Toontown, as this was added as an expansion in 1988. UtilidorNaturally, Disney wants to keep the air in the utilidors as clean as possible - and that means keeping gas-powered vehicles to a minimum. Instead, Cast Members and goods can get be ferried around using golf cart-style electric vehicles that are known as "Pargos".

2. The monorail

Monorail

Image © Disney

Walt Disney was in love with idea of monorails as a transportation system. At EPCOT, a monorail network would have carried residents on longer journeys, to the Magic Kingdom theme park, to factories and research laboratories on an industrial park and to the airport on the fringes of the city. Walt saw a monorail system in action during a trip to Europe in 1958. He was impressed by the German Alweg system because it employed a unique straddle-beam track, a slender deigner that would allow the beam to blend in perfectly with the surrounding landscape. He also liked the combination of electric propulsion and rubber wheels on the beam, which enabled near-silent operation. He immediately commissioned a monorail ride for Disneyland, which he hoped to use to convince authorities from cities around the world to install their own versions. When the ride opened on June 14, 1959, it was the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere. Monorail (2)

Image © Disney

Ultimately, city authorities moved more slowly than Walt Disney. As they procrastinated over the installation of mass transit systems such as the monorail, cars increasingly became the de-facto method of transporation in many US cities. Walt's successors did, however, make the monorail the backbone of Walt Disney World's transporation system. It is still one of the world's leading monorail systems, carrying more than 150,000 passengers per day across a combined total of 14.7 miles of beams.

1. The PeopleMover

 

Although cars were to be virtually banned from the surface streets, it wouldn't be feasible to walk everywhere in Walt's dream city. Nor would it be sensible or cost-effective to connect up every area of the city with a monorail. Instead, Walt wanted another form of transportation, one that was more suited to short hops, but that was still clean and reliable. The solution was the WEDWay PeopleMover, developed by legendary Imagineer Bob Gurr. The chief innovation of the system was that the vehicles never stopped moving. Instead, guests boarded via a circular moving walkway, which dramatically improved the loading speed when compared to a linear walkway. This was coupled with a set of small trains that were pushed along by rotating tires that were embedded in the track every nine feet, each with its own electric motor. The cars themselves did not have motors, and the breakdown of any of the spinning tires would not cause the entire system to break down. Residents at EPCOT would commute to work via WEDWay trams, and just like the monorail, Disney wanted to convince cities all over the world to adopt them. He planned to bring representatives from cities and shopping malls to see the first WEDWay in action once it opened as part of Disneyland's New Tomorrowland makeover in 1967. However, he died before he had the chance.

 

Without Walt as a cheerleader, the system never caught on. However, it was updated in the 1970s for the Walt Disney World version, which employs linear induction motors to propel its vehicles and still whisks guests around the Tomorrowland area of the Magic Kingdom.

 
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Comments

Reedy Creek Development Corporation was, I believe, formed so that Cinderellas Castle could be constructed using fiberglas, which was in violation of local building codes. It wasn't formed so that EPCOT could be built.

I believe the people mover was actually installed in Houston at Bush International Airport.

During a Keys To The Kingdom tour, it was mentioned that Disney was fascinated with the central trash system that would pull all trash into one portion of the park for disposal. While this was a concept that Walt was wishing for Epcot, this system is actually in place and operational at the Magic Kingdom.

A monorail did catch on at least one other place, Seattle. It was installed for the 1962 World's, still running daily today, 52 years later. Same Alweg, just different car designs.

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