At exactly 9:02 am, on October 1, 1982, a gleaming monorail will propel the first visitors from the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom south about one mile to the EPCOT Center, the latest development of the sprawling 27,500 acre holdings of the Disney empire in central Florida.
Since FUTURE LIFE'S last look at EPCOT ("Imagineering the Future: A Sneak Preview Tour of EPCOT”) in March of 1979, public interest, curiosity and controversy concerning the $800 million project have increased. Certainly the size and scope of the undertaking as outlined in that article promised that great things would be coming from the Disney organization. Even at this point, with slightly less than two years to go before the first eager crowds board the monorail, that promise shows every sign of being kept.
EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) has been called "Disney's greatest dream.” It has undoubtedly proven to be the biggest construction project ever undertaken by a private group in the United States. But it was a multimillion-dollar dream that had very early beginnings. After the now-legendary success of Disneyland in Anaheim and the very visible Disney hand in the design of several pavilions and rides for the 1964 New York World's Fair, Disney began to push for the next step: EPCOT. In a 1965 promotional film produced shortly before his death, Walt Disney described the direction of the EPCOT project: "EPCOT will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and new systems..."
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