Walt Disney had big plans for his Florida resort. Literally big, in that Disney World would sprawl across more than 25,000 acres. And metaphorically big, in that he hoped to transform the way we all live and work. At the heart of Walt’s vision for Disney World was the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT), a living, working city where new technologies and processes could be tested out before being rolled out across the world. We’ve taken a look at some of the concepts for EPCOT previously, but they included underground tunnels for cars and utilities (to keep the streets safe and clean), a covered, weather-proof city center and a revolutionary public transport system. Of course, Walt died in December 1966, leaving him unable to follow through on this dream. His brother, Roy, took over construction of the newly-renamed Walt Disney World, and plans for EPCOT were shelved. Walt’s successors, though, insisted that the spiritof EPCOT would live on, with Walt Disney World using a host of innovative systems. Looking at the resort even today, it’s clear that this was not just bluster. Some of Walt’s grand ideas really were implemented, although sometimes on a smaller scale than he had anticipated. Let’s take a look at 5 examples.
5. Disney’s own government
Walt knew that EPCOT could never succeed if it was bound by government regulations. How could new building types be created, for example, if they had to confirm with standard building codes? And how could companies innovate quickly if residents were allowed to oppose their plans to construct new facilities? There were two obvious elements to the solution to this problem. One was relatively simple to implement: the residents of EPCOT would all rent their accommodation – they wouldn’t be allowed to own it and gain permanent voting rights. And Disney World would have its own government, one that would ensure that everything was safe but would also allow experimentation and new approaches. 
Today, that government really exists – it is known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Roy was able to secure sweeping powers for the RCID, which oversees aspects of the resort such as utilities (the distribution and even generation of electricity, for example), emergency services (it has its own fire department, although it draws upon outside resources too) and management of the environment. It may not have overseen the creation of a futuristic city, but the RCID has still had huge benefits for Walt Disney World. For example, it helped to ensure that Disney-MGM Studios opened a full year before rival Universal Studios Florida, which had to go through a more traditional planning process.
4. The World Showcase
When Disney did finally build a version of EPCOT, it differed from Walt’s original vision substantially. EPCOT Center was, in reality, another theme park – albeit one that acted as a kind of permanent World’s Fair. But EPCOT Center did indeed bear some resemblance to Walt’s planned city center.
Walt had considered building an internationally-themed retail, dining and entertainment area for years. One of the first potential incarnations was International Street, planned for Disneyland but ultimately never built. Details of the area were released before Disneyland opened, with the park’s merchandising manager, Robert H. Burns telling members of the Los Angeles Foreign Trade Assocation in December 1954: “International Street will be one of the most colorful segments of the fabulous center Walt Disney is constructing near Anaheim…Nine types of foreign architecture will feature the exhibits and shops of 14 European nations along the street. Typical foreign products will be on sale.” With funds running low, the decision was made to put International Street on the backburner, as Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland were viewed as higher priorities. Early visitors to Disneyland could see concept artwork for the land, but would never set foot in it.
The idea continued to appeal to Walt, though, and a similar area was to form part of EPCOT. At the base of the towering hotel that would sit at the very heart of the city would be an area of streets and stores themed around exotic foreign nations. 
If this all sounds a bit familiar, that’s because it’s more or less what Disney ultimately opened as EPCOT Center’s World Showcase in 1982. Instead of surrounding a hotel, World Showcase sits around an enormous lagoon, but it does indeed feature internationally-themed shops, restaurants and attractions.
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.
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. 
Naturally, 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
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. 
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.
