WEBVTT - The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:14.200 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.640 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:21.319 how Stuff Works and I love all things tech. And 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:25.600 recently I went on a vacation to the most magical 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:29.320 place on Earth. Not the happiest place on Earth. That's Disneyland. 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:32.120 The most magical place on Earth is disney World. And yes, 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:35.360 that's how the company refers to them. And the reason 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:39.160 I mentioned that is because back on October one, two 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:44.640 Walt Disney World opened its Phase two theme park. The 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.279 original park, the Magic Kingdom, was Phase one that had 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:51.960 opened on October one, nineteen seventy one, and this episode 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:55.400 is publishing on October one, two thousand eighteen. So I 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.600 figure I would do an episode specifically about the concept 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.120 behind the original Epcot and how that was different from 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:08.680 the theme park that would open thirty six years from now. 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.920 Like back back thirty six years ago, back in time. Well, 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:16.120 today's Epcot is presented as a proper noun, So Epcot 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:20.720 is just its name, Big E Small pc Ot, But 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.920 originally the name was actually an acronym. Now there's a 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.640 joke about what that acronym stands for. The joke says 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:34.360 that stands for every person comes out tired because EPCOT 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.000 is an enormous theme park. It's twice the size of 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:40.760 the Magic Kingdom, three times the size of Disneyland, and 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:44.120 there's very little shade in the Florida whether can be 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:47.280 a bit unforgiving for much of the year, for example, 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:50.680 when I was there. But in fact, the acronym really 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:56.400 stood for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, and it was 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:02.160 one of Walt Disney's dream projects, a truly ambitious goal 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:06.800 that he had set now before nineteen EPCOT was a 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:10.600 name only a relatively few number of people had ever heard, 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:16.360 uh it had not escaped the company and a few 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:20.519 small or a few partners potential partners. So Walt Disney 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.919 had been interested in creating a prototype city that incorporated 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:29.640 cutting edge technology. It would have sophisticated urban planning from 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.920 the get go, and this was an idea he came 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:37.240 up with not long after Disneyland was established in the fifties. 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:42.200 He had previously explored the possibility of creating such a city. 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.840 In nineteen fifty nine, he got an opportunity with some 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:51.240 developers outside of Palm Beach, Florida. He had previously looked 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:53.640 at New York as a site, but determined that that 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:58.799 was not a very good site for an amusement park, 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:03.040 largely because of whether it would probably mean that the 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.280 theme park would only really be an operation for part 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.560 of the year, and he had year long operations because 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.280 it was the most efficient use of the space. So 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:14.760 he had looked around the Eastern Seaboard. He looked at 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.280 Palm Beach, Florida. It would have been a joint effort 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:22.000 between Disney's company uh NBC r c A and a 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:25.800 billionaire named John D. MacArthur, but the plan fell through. 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:28.600 Our CIA went through some financial difficulties and kind of 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.920 had to withdraw from it, and there were disagreements between 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:34.760 Roy Disney, who was sort of the financial genius behind 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:39.800 the Disney Company, and MacArthur. So that didn't go any 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.560 further than that. But Whalt Disney had really started to 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:46.200 think about this idea of creating a city, and he 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:48.280 was resolved to give it a shot if he had 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:52.440 the chance. The first time the public got to hear 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:56.440 at least a hint about Disney's dream of this community 0:03:56.440 --> 0:04:00.280 of tomorrow would be back in November nineteen at a 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:04.560 press conference. This was a press conference where the company, 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.320 the Disney Company, revealed that had purchased nearly twenty eight 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:12.440 thousand acres of land in central Florida. Now, at that 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:17.320 press conference, Walt Disney announced that they had in mind 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:21.599 something much more than an entertainment offering like Disneyland. Now 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:26.080 that's not to disparage Disneyland. I truly love that theme park, 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:29.600 but rather to say that Walt Disney had a larger 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:33.840 vision for the Orlando deal. Initially, though, he was rather 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:38.440 coy with sharing those ideas. They the details for what 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.400 they were planning were pretty sparse at that press conference, which, 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:43.680 by the way, you can watch that press conference is 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:48.320 on YouTube. You can pull up the November nine announcement 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:51.200 of what would become Walt Disney World. At this point, 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:55.080 it was the Florida project. Walt Disney didn't want to 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:59.120 commit publicly to any one plan that early in the process. 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:01.839 He would say that he had many ideas and he 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:05.320 wanted the project to at least be the equal of Disneyland, 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:10.800 if not superior to Disneyland. But following the conference, there 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:13.320 were news reports that said the site would become the 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:17.520 home of a city of yesterday, so presumably meaning a 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:21.040 community that hearkened back to an idealistic vision of Americana, 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:25.039 kind of like the embodiment of Main Street, USA at 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.880 the various Disney parks, And it would also be the 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:32.200 home of a city of tomorrow, and that it would 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.400 be at least three years before anything of consequence could 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.640 be built on the site of Florida, because there'll be 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:40.719 a lot of preliminary work that would need to be 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:46.280 done before any foundation could be laid. Walt Disney died 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:50.400 on December fifteenth, nineteen sixty six, due to lung cancer. 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:54.200 Just a couple of months after his death, the Walt 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:57.200 Disney Company sent out press kits to the media, including 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:00.240 The New York Times, and those press kits included plays 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.719 for what was to become of all that land in Florida. 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:08.039 And at the heart of this plan was this new 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.240 type of city. It was a say that was designed 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.120 to take advantage of modern technologies from the ground up, 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:17.560 a city purposefully laid out and integrated so that the 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.240 people who lived and worked there could spend less time 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.560 dealing with day to day frustrations and more time being 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:27.880 productive and doing what most you know, Americans think of 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:31.920 as being the truly American activity, pursuing the heck out 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:36.400 of happiness. So in this prescott where concept images of 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.960 elements of this city, one of those concept images showed 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:43.760 a collection of buildings laid out around in a hub 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.720 and wheel pattern of what the company referred to as 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:50.960 the radial design that would be common to all elements 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:53.920 of this new city. You would see this same sort 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:58.840 of basic element of design repeated throughout the various incarnations 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:05.080 each building. Uh In this particular drawing for this industrial park, 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:08.120 part of the city was shaped kind of like a 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:11.280 slice of high but you cut the pointy bit off, 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.520 so you've got a flat part towards this pointing towards 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:17.840 the center, the center being a circular sort of courtyard, 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.880 and each building is like a slightly separated piece of pie. 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:26.679 This industrial complex was supposed to be a place where 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:31.320 corporations would partner with Disney. They would have their locations 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:34.640 here to create a kind of a showcase of industry 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:38.040 at work, according to the Breasts kit, so its supposed 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:42.520 to be kind of a a stage almost where American 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:47.680 industry could be shown off, not just for promotional purposes, 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:51.320 but also a way to interact with the public and 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:55.160 show off the newest of innovations. UH Walt Disney was 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:59.360 a great believer in American ingenuity and innovation, and he 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:04.160 wanted this to be kind of a stage for those companies. 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.280 Another image included a cutaway concept of what the company 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:12.080 referred to as the transportation Lobby. This would actually be 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:18.480 located beneath an enormous hotel, a thirty story hotel, So 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.040 you have a thirty story hotel, and then where you 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:24.040 would have the ground level, like where pedestrians will be 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:28.240 walking around outside, you had the transportation lobby. In this image, 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.040 you can see people walking around on that ground floor 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:35.560 and that's the that's the domain of pedestrians. Beneath the 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:41.599 transportation lobby, you would see parking facilities and highways. The 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:46.839 road was actually beneath this prototype community of Tomorrow. It 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.679 didn't run through it, it ran under it. Not that 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.480 different from what Elon Musk has proposed with some of 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.000 his tunnel systems that he would like to build under 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:58.520 various cities. So you could argue that Elon Musk is 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.000 trying to bring to life at East. Part of this 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:06.040 vision of the community of tomorrow, and these highways would 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:10.920 also include specific sections meant for specific types of vehicles. 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:15.400 At the bottomost layer would be the the the level 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:20.040 for supply trucks, so trucks carrying important supplies for the 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:24.000 community would actually travel on the lowest level and they 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.240 would have direct access to things like freight elevators, and 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:31.360 then commuter traffic would be a level above that, but 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.760 still below ground, and then you would have the ground 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.680 floor where people could walk around. Above that would be 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:42.960 elevated tracks, and you would have a system that was 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.080 essentially the wed Way people mover. Anyone who's been to 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:49.800 Disneyland or Walt Disney World is probably somewhat familiar with 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:53.679 the people Mover, and that would be sort of a 0:09:54.520 --> 0:10:01.120 short distance, slow public transit offering, not not a fast travel. 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.600 But then across from that is an elevated monorail, and 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:08.760 that was meant to be for longer distances and faster travel. 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:11.559 So according to the press kit, the Transportation Lobby will 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:15.280 be located at the very heart of Epcot, directly beneath 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:18.720 the thirty story theme Hotel. This will be the central 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:22.520 arrival departure point for all passengers using the monorail or 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:26.439 the newly designed wed Way people mover. Another drawing showed 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.680 a large indoor shopping district that was meant to hold 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:34.880 imported merchandise, foreign cuisine, dinner shows, and roving entertainers native 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.440 to many lands. So he started to hear a little 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.959 elements that you might recognize if you've been to the 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.720 Epcot theme park, but these were meant on a much 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:46.400 grander scale. This press kitt, by the way, was just 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:50.280 a taste of the concept. Walt Disney, back in nineteen 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:52.800 sixty six, just a couple of months before he passed away, 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:56.960 had actually shot a twenty four minute film about this concept. 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:00.560 The film would premiere in February nineteen six seven, so 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:04.360 two months after Disney had passed away. In that film, 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:08.559 Disney would mention that the details of what was going 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:12.720 on in Florida would be this experimental prototype community of tomorrow, 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:14.840 or at least a large part of it would be. 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:20.920 The underlying philosophy would be pretty rock solid. But Disney 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.680 did say that the drawings he was going to reveal 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:27.520 were concepts that could easily undergo a great deal of 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:31.520 change before they were ever made real. So his plan 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:35.000 was to build this community, but he wasn't entirely certain 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.360 that it was going to look exactly the way his 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:41.959 artists had designed it from the get go. He mentioned 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:45.840 that the Florida project, now called Disney World, would include 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:49.160 a theme park that would be similar to Disneyland in California, 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:52.000 but that would just be one small component of the 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:55.679 new project, because again the land in Florida was enormous. 0:11:56.120 --> 0:12:00.719 You would also have hotels, motels, recreational facilities, and much more. 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:05.040 For example, the plans also included an airport of the 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:08.679 future at the southern end of the property, opposite where 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:10.680 the theme park was to be located. So the theme 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.080 park was to be at the north end, and this 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:15.720 airport would have been at the southern end. The airport 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:19.439 would then feed into what was labeled as an entrance 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.680 complex was a little bit further to the north, and 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.440 that would be the entry point for visitors to Disney World. 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:28.120 They would go through this kind of like main gates 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:32.959 in a way. But this itself was a pretty large complex. 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:36.120 In fact, on the map, the complex looks like it's 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:40.160 larger than what was the planned one thousand acre industrial 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.040 park I mentioned earlier that was actually next in line 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:47.680 to the north, so airport. Then you get the entrance complex, 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.720 then you get the industrial park next to the north. 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:55.760 Beyond that was Epcot itself, the full city prototype design, 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:57.720 and then at the very tippy top on the north 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:00.360 end was the theme park in hotels. Connecting all of 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.320 those elements was the monorail system. And to call it 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:07.520 ambitious would be a massive understatement. And Epcot was, as 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.120 Walt Disney himself put it in that nineteen sixty six 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:14.600 film that debuted in sixty seven, the heart of the operation. 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:17.920 It was what he was most excited about. That's what 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:22.360 the Florida project was really focused on, was Epcot. Now, 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.480 according to Disney, the city wouldn't just be a showcase 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.480 for the cutting edge technologies of the late nineteen sixties. 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:32.079 It would be a community that would evolve continuously as 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:36.000 technology advanced. It would never be complete, it would never 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:39.200 be finished. It would be a community that embraced change 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:43.880 and advances. So what was Disney proposing beyond these concept 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:47.520 drawings and these broad ideas. What was the driving force 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.240 behind his vision. I'll explain that in just a moment, 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:52.839 But first let's take a quick break to thank our 0:13:52.880 --> 0:14:03.720 sponsor in that nineteen sixty six film, Walt Disney said 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:07.000 that the primary factor that would drive the design principles 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.640 for Epcot would be public need. That designing the city 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:13.120 with the public need and mind from the get go 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.560 would create the best chance of building a community that 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:20.120 met those needs from the start. So ideally, you would 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.920 take all the knowledge accumulated through decades of urban planning 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:26.800 and use it to lay out a city in a logical, 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.080 intuitive way so that the city is adapted to the 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.000 people living in it, rather than the citizens having to 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:37.160 adapt to the city. So how was it laid out? Well, 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.120 it goes back to that radial design. Imagine a wheel 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.240 like a bicycle wheel and has a hub in the 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:45.400 middle and their spokes from the hub leading out to 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:50.400 the outer edge. That's the basic design of the original Epcot. 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.160 Disney was attracted to this particular design for a few reasons. 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.480 For one, it was really efficient. Having controlled points of 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:01.040 entry and a radial design allowed for efficient circulation of traffic. 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.120 And for another, it also made it easy to navigate. 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.600 Orienting yourself in such a layout was relatively easy. You 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.800 had an identifiable central point and predictable layouts surrounding it, 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:14.400 so even if you got a little turned around, it 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:16.200 would be pretty easy to find your way back to 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.320 a familiar point and then figure out where you were 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:23.440 from there. So at the center, the hub part, the 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.560 middle of the circle would be the sort of the 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:30.080 downtown section of this community would be a sort of 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:34.720 a business complex. It's where you'd find office buildings, corporate jobs, 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.280 things like that. It's also where you would find major 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:43.200 cultural centers, museums, theaters, entertainment complexes, Restaurants would be in 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.440 this section. Nightlife locations, clubs, that kind of thing would 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.320 be there. It would incorporate all the elements we associate 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:53.720 with a vibrant downtown area of a major city. At 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:56.440 the very center of the sub would be that hotel 0:15:56.480 --> 0:16:00.640 I mentioned, the thirty story tall hotel, and that hotel 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:05.440 would also have a deck measuring seven acres in size, 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.200 and at seven acre deck would also have recreational areas including, 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:13.960 according to the concept drawings, ponds, there be parks. The 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:16.680 deck would be several stories above the pedestrian level of 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.240 the city center, so you'd have to go into the 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:21.880 hotel and go up to the right floor to get 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.760 out on that deck. And incredibly, the entire section. This 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:30.040 whole downtown part of epp Cut was supposed to be 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:35.480 enclosed in a climate controlled dome. There's the center of 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:38.360 epp Cut was a city in a bubble, which, if 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:41.840 you've experienced Florida heat and humidity, was likely a big 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.120 selling point to a lot of the people who were 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:48.920 thinking about this design because being able to stroll around 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:52.880 a shopping plaza, or walk to work, or just wandering 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:56.160 downtown without being subjected to the swampy mess that is 0:16:56.200 --> 0:17:00.280 a Florida summer was a truly futuristic idea. Now, on 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:02.560 the ground level of the city, the only way to 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.440 really get around would be by foot. You might be 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:09.720 able to use something like an electric UH scooter or 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:13.920 a bicycle as well, although that was more intended for 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.120 further out from the center, but we'll get to that. 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:21.600 So you'd really be the pedestrian UH wandering around here 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:25.159 because all the car traffic would be below you. It 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.800 would be underground, and all the public transit would be 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.879 above you on elevated rails, either the people mover on 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.639 its own elevated track or the monorail on its elevated track, 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:40.400 and those last two the people move around the monorail 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:44.440 would also be electric powered vehicles, so at least in theory, 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:48.080 they would operate quietly and they would not generate pollution, 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:51.320 although I got to back that up a little bit 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.679 because you have to generate the electricity that runs the system. 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:58.160 So depending upon how you generated the electricity, you could 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.520 still be generating a lot of pollution just to be 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:02.960 in a different part of the chain, right, a different 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:05.760 part of the ecosystem. It would be in the electricity 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.520 generation part, but not the direct operation of the vehicle. 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:11.919 But you still have to look at the big picture. 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:14.520 You can't just look at tiny sections and just say 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.520 this is automatically better. But it was an interesting idea. 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:20.359 The monorail would have a station under the hotel at 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:24.040 the transportation center, as I mentioned, so it would still 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.960 be located on kind of the ground floor of the 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:30.760 city itself. Right, the transportation center would be on the 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:35.000 pedestrian level of this city, and the hotel would be 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:37.560 essentially like the lobby of the hotel, as I would imagine, 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:41.080 it would be floor too. Now on the outskirts of 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.399 this sector, the center, the hub of the city would 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:47.480 be high density apartment housing, so this would be for 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:52.400 uh folks who are working right there in downtown. Might 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:55.280 be for single people who are working within that city. 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.200 It could be people who are working in the theme 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:02.080 park and who aren't you know, they don't they don't 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:05.000 have their own families, but they need a place to live. 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:07.760 But this would give them very quick access to that 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:10.040 theme park because again the theme park would be connected 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:14.280 by monorail to the north. So, uh, this was not 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:17.920 the main part of housing. It was just one element 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:23.520 of it. The only a small percentage of Epcot's population 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:27.680 would be living in these high density apartment um according 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.720 to the promotional film. Now, the next section out from 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:34.080 the center, so you've got downtown, you have the high 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:39.640 density apartments. Immediately surrounding downtown around that was a green 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:43.199 belt of parks. So the next layer out, if you're 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:47.720 thinking of it like a target, the next ring outside 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:50.600 of the bull's eye was the screen belt. So you 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.960 had parks, you had golf courses, sporting fields, you know, 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:58.120 football fields, baseball diamonds, that kind of stuff. And this 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:00.080 would be the section of Apcot that would serve as 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.639 the location also for things like schools and churches, and 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:05.760 it would be the play space for the city where 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.879 people could come and spend time outside, So this is 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:10.879 no longer in the bubble. This is outside the bubble. 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:15.240 And then outside of that would be the low density 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:19.560 housing the suburbs of Epcot. These would be for homes 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:22.840 with UH for families, and it would actually hold the 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.640 majority of Epcot's residents. Most people would be living out 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:29.640 in these suburbs. Each residential area would surround the end 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:32.919 of one of those spokes I talked about. So if 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:35.640 you again imagine a bicycle that has spokes leading out 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:37.720 from the center wheel or maybe maybe we should say 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:42.119 a wagon wheel, because as fewer spokes uh, each spoke 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:48.120 would be surrounded by green space. UH. The spoke itself 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:51.520 would represent the track for the people mover, so the 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:56.920 people mover track would go UH out and back from 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:02.919 the hub along these spokes. Surrounding that track would be 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:07.040 this big green space kind of like UM again, more parks, 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:13.360 golf courses, recreational facilities. And on the outer edge of 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.680 this would actually be the houses. And then on the 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:20.880 back side of the houses would be a road where 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:23.880 people could drive their cars before going underneath to get 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:27.760 to the downtown area if they needed to drive their cars. 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.200 Although Disney's plan was that for day to day use, 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.320 you would not even use your car. You would use 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:35.960 the people mover transit system to get in and out 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:39.080 of Epcot. You would only use your car if you 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:41.080 needed to go further or you know, you just want 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:44.160 to go take the family for a drive. People would 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:47.200 either work in the business center, or in the industrial 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:49.800 complexes that were south of the community, or in the 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:52.840 theme parks that were north of the community. In the concept, 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:56.560 every citizen of Epcot would be guaranteed a job, and 0:21:56.600 --> 0:21:59.679 the community would be home to around twenty thousand people. 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:02.680 The community would be a model for a city unit, 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:07.919 and future cities might consist of several communities designed in 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:12.320 this way, all linked together by monorail lines. And this 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:17.359 was an enormously ambitious idea. Walt Disney himself admitted that 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:20.760 the challenge was far too big for any one company 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:23.360 to take on by itself. Epcot would have to be 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:27.440 a joint effort between many different companies to become a reality. 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:29.439 These would have to be companies that wanted to have 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:33.840 a spot in that industrial complex, for example, where they 0:22:33.840 --> 0:22:37.320 could experiment with different approaches to prototyping and pioneering. News 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:40.520 systems and practices. The theme park would help bring in 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:44.200 money to help support the infrastructure and would provide employment 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:46.760 to many of the residents of Epcot. And leading up 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:49.919 to this, Disney and his team had learned a lot. 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:52.960 They learned lessons from building out the company's movie studio 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:56.560 buildings in Burbank, California. They learned even more during the 0:22:56.560 --> 0:23:01.159 construction and launch of Disneyland. Disney Land, you may know, 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:05.280 also employs the hub and spoke design, that radial design. 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:07.879 You've got the castle in the center, and the different 0:23:08.040 --> 0:23:11.840 lands like fantasy Land, tomorrow Land, Frontier Land, Adventure Land 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:16.320 on the outskirts. It follows that same idea and it 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:20.159 has that identifiable center with the castle that lets you 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:22.840 figure out where you are in relation to everything else 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:27.879 pretty quickly. Uh. Walt Disney learned he wanted more control 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:32.600 over the environment after he built Disneyland, because when he 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:36.520 built Disneyland, what followed were all these hotels and motels 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:40.800 popping up around from other, you know, business owners, and 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:44.080 it became kind of a tourist trappee area around Disneyland. 0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:46.000 And Walt Disney didn't like that at all. He felt 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:51.399 it marred the appearance of Disneyland, So with Florida, he 0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:54.680 wanted to exert a lot more control over the environment 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:58.159 so that people would experience it the way he wanted 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:02.000 them to and that they would not have their view 0:24:02.240 --> 0:24:05.360 of whatever it was that he wanted to look at. 0:24:05.400 --> 0:24:07.880 For example, the Magic Kingdom, he wouldn't he didn't want 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:13.800 that marred by Tachi hotels or restaurants. And the company 0:24:13.840 --> 0:24:17.200 had landed some pretty darn good deals with the state 0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:21.200 of Florida before this announcement was made. There were lots 0:24:21.200 --> 0:24:24.480 of tax incentives. There were agreements between city, county, and 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:28.119 state levels of government and the Disney Company. The groundwork 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:31.800 was laid from a political and administrative side, and the 0:24:31.840 --> 0:24:35.240 stage was set in Disney's plan for a futuristic city, 0:24:35.359 --> 0:24:37.760 one that would cater to pedestrians and serve as a 0:24:37.760 --> 0:24:40.879 platform for American industry and ingenuity, which would then be 0:24:40.920 --> 0:24:45.280