REMEMBER... OPENING OCT. 1971

We conclude this week's countdown of Walt Disney World anniversary milestones with... a countdown. This time, it's the ticking clock for construction crews and Imagineers putting the finishing touches on the Magic Kingdom park for its grand opening, a date emblazoned on the face of Cinderella Castle for all to see. (All photos ©Disney)

Although an initial groundbreaking ceremony had taken place in 1967, quite a bit of preparation had to be done to the land before actual work could begin. Construction started in earnest on May 27, 1969, with just over two years to go before the big day. The pictures you see here represent the final weeks and months leading up to the opening.

In the photo above, City Hall is nearly complete, and the Victorian woodwork is being added to the front of the Emporium. Below, the towering pylons at the entrance to Tomorrowland await their final paint and tile. Trees have been planted along the waterway, fresh sod is being laid and a wooden mock-up of a Plaza Swan Boat is placed in the canal to test for clearances (although the actual attraction wouldn't be ready to open until May 1973).

In this next shot, we see the famed Liberty Tree. This 100+ year old southern live oak was identified on the south end of Walt Disney World Resort property, and then transplanted to Liberty Square. Steel rods were drilled through the center of the tree, allowing it to be lifted onto the truck by crane, driven slowly to the Magic Kingdom and lowered into place. The holes left by the rods were then sealed, allowing the tree to survive and thrive.

Our last shot today offers a peak into Fantasyland, where Dumbo is almost ready to fly. This is the original 10-arm Dumbo the Flying Elephant attraction, which was replaced by the current 16-arm version in the early-90s. Look closely at the photo, and you can also spot one of the Skyway towers and the palm trees surrounding the lagoon for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

As we prepare to embark upon the celebration of Walt Disney World's 40th year, Dumbo the Flying Elephant is under construction once again... this time as part of Storybook Circus in New Fantasyland. The circus big top is already going vertical, and Dumbo will soon fly east to his new home, set to debut in 2012.

Another View of '72

I have more great vintage Magic Kingdom photos for you today, these shared by DisneyShawn blog reader Pat Chastain of Indianapolis, Indiana. Pat's first picture (above) provides further confirmation of the fact that the Mad Tea Party in Florida was built without a roof, just like its counterpart in Disneyland. This particular shot was taken from the Grand Prix Raceway side of the attraction, looking toward 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in the background.

Next, Pat provides a couple more views of Tomorrowland. Above, you can get a better look at the waterfall monolith structure at the entrance to Tomorrowland. This image also provides another clear indication that the path for the WEDway PeopleMover was established from the beginning, even though that attraction wouldn't make its debut until 1975.

The image below offers an entirely different view of things, this time from the old Top of the World Lounge on the 15th floor of Disney's Contemporary Resort (where California Grill is today). Look past the groovy orange chairs and track lighting, and you'll catch a glimpse of Tomorrowland in which the Skyway station is the dominant structure. After all, prior to the mid-70s expansion of the land, there was no Space Mountain, Carousel of Progress, PeopleMover or Star Jets.

Pat's final shot from that March 1972 trip at first appears to present a bit of a mystery. It's obviously some kind of construction effort, as seen from the Walt Disney World Railroad. My first thought was that this would have been for Pirates of the Caribbean, which was added to the Magic Kingdom in December 1973. The site, though, is clearly much closer to the Rivers of America (you can spot Liberty Tree Tavern and the smokestacks of the Admiral Joe Fowler Riverboat in the distance). Perhaps this was the site intended for the planned Thunder Mesa expansion, but instead used as a "lay down" area for the work on Pirates when those plans changed? Solid theory, except for the fact that real construction on Pirates of the Caribbean didn't get underway until the Fall of '72.

Then it dawned on me...

When the Magic Kingdom opened, the Walt Disney World Railroad featured only one station. Guests boarded the train at Main Street, U.S.A., for a "grand circle tour" of the park. The station in Frontierland wasn't completed until May of 1972. It appears, from Pat Chastain's photograph, that work on the new station stop was well underway in March of that year.

For the full story on the original Frontierland Railroad Station (replaced in 1992 with the construction of Splash Mountain), check out this article from Widen Your World.

Pictures from the Past

As the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Sometimes, an old photograph of a Disney Park can offer just as many windows to the past, as I recently discovered browsing the phenomenal collection over at Daveland.com. Take, for example, the photo above (image used with permission). Go ahead and click on it for a better view. What do you see?

The first thing that likely jumps out at you is the construction site. This spot on the edge of Fantasyland was once home to the Fantasyland Art Festival, where guests could have their portraits made or a caricature drawn. Today, it's where you'll find the Enchanted Grove snack stand, along with area restrooms and Fairytale Garden.

What intrigued me most about this image, though, was the Mad Tea Party. Now, I happen to know quite a bit about Walt Disney World, but I certainly don't know everything, so I especially love it when I come across some new nugget of information. Before seeing this picture, I had no idea the Mad Tea Party was built without a roof. Of course, the Disneyland version of the attraction is uncovered, but then again, it rains far less in Southern California than it does in Central Florida. This picture was taken in June 1972. Judging from other shots I've seen, it looks like it didn't take long for the park to commit to a canopy so they could keep the party going rain or shine.

Look around in the photo - really stare at it - and other details of the past will become apparent. Sticking with the Mad Tea Party, the color scheme of the turntable and teacups has changed over the years. You may also notice the top of the old operator booth, plus the fact that there's no teapot (or Dormouse) at the center or Alice in Wonderland topiaries and leaf sculptures in the planters. It's a bit hard to tell, since the image cuts off at the bottom, but the present day Mad Tea Party may even have more cups and saucers than this original, offering a higher capacity.

What else do you see? There's an original-design Fantasyland trash can and old school metal and blue rental stroller near the green teacup on the right. What about Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe? In 1972, this corner was the Tomorrowland Terrace (a name now used for the former Plaza Pavilion near Main Street). You can make out the red oval sign for the restaurant, jutting out from an old Tomorrowland pylon, and the original geodesic dome roof over the Tomorrowland Terrace stage. Sonny Eclipse holds forth nowadays, but back then this was the spot for live cover bands with names like "The Dallas Soundtrack" and "Tabasco."

Further afield, close observers might notice the original trees in the Central Plaza (since removed after they grew so large they obstructed the view), the lack of a rose garden pathway (the rose garden leads down to the old landing for the Plaza Swan Boats), and the absence of Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa from the horizon (you can just make out the Grand Ceremonial House at Disney's Polynesian Resort).

This picture also includes a view of the giant waterfall pylons that once graced the entrance to Tomorrowland, but we'll talk more about those, well... tomorrow, when I'll have another great old photo to share. Until then, I'll leave you with one last observation: The vantage point from which today's photo was taken. You can't really see it (except for the blur at the lower right that is the out-of-focus edge of the cab), but our photographer was perched high above the Magic Kingdom on the Skyway to Tomorrowland.

Fantasyland Update

Work has begun in earnest on the Fantasyland Forest expansion project at the Magic Kingdom Park. While much of the activity is behind walls and won't bear (visible) fruit for months or years to come, a few things have already happened in plain sight.

Take Mrs. Potts' Cupboard, for example. This Fantasyland ice cream spot had been scheduled for a refurbishment of its roof. Instead of simply replacing the shingles, though, the Park Maintenance team partnered with Walt Disney Imagineering to install a new thatched roof that will help this structure feel right at home in the more rural setting of the Fantasyland Forest. While the Forest itself may not be here yet, you can see a little part of the project right now in the form of this cottage.

Over by Pinocchio's Village Haus, Ariel's Grotto has been removed in anticipation of all new adventures to come with the Little Mermaid. Much of the area is now behind walls, but the space under the blue tent (originally a seating area for the old Fantasy Faire stage) has been reopened to provide a place for Guests to rest during their visit to the Kingdom.

Big changes are in store at The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The facade to the attraction, originally designed as part of the festival being held within the castle walls, is undergoing a transformation. Soon, Guests approaching the attraction will find themselves in a corner of the Hundred Acre Wood.

The large tree with Pooh's home, formerly a feature of Pooh's Playful Spot, has been moved across the way to the front of the attraction. In time, it will become part of an all new entrance to this now-classic Fantasyland dark ride.

This is just the beginning. Look for much more to come as we inch ever closer to the 2012/13 opening of Fantasyland Forest.

Maintaining the Magic

Although the Magic Kingdom Park will be 40 years old next year, it doesn't look a day over 4, and there's good reason for that. Maintenance work is conducted around the clock to keep this and all the Disney Parks looking their best. Some of this work can be accomplished overnight while the park is closed, but other efforts are more extensive, requiring weeks or months of refurbishment.

In the case of building facades, lengthy repairs might necessitate the use of unsightly scaffolding and scrims. Over the past decade, though, the Imagineers have developed a way to shroud the work with a little Disney magic. Today, those scrims are digitally printed with a full-scale image of the building behind. The result is a near-seamless view for passing Guests and a reaction of, "Wow! Only at Disney!"

The first printed scrim I recall seeing was used on the Doge's Palace in the Italy pavilion at Epcot. It was summer 2001 when the scaffolding started to go up, and I was getting nervous. My wife and I had plans to get married on the Italy Isola shortly thereafter. When the morning of August 9 arrived, I was too distracted by the events of the day and my beautiful bride to really notice the Doge's Palace. Looking at the photos later, though, I was amazed at how the scrim just blended right in as if nothing were different.

These days, printed scrims are used any time repair work on a building or facade is expected to last more than a week or so. In the Magic Kingdom right now, scrims can be found up and down Main Street, as well as in other sections of the park.

Peter Pan's Flight in Fantasyland is currently undergoing a refurbishment, as is the Liberty Tree Tavern in Liberty Square. This particular one really made me smile when I saw it. You have to look closely in the picture to tell, but the tree in the planter to the right of the entrance is actually behind the scrim. Most of it is printed along with the rest of the image. A couple of branches, though, protrude forward through holes in the scrim. It all blends together so well, you really have to do a double-take to determine what's real and what's illusion.

Legend of the Manmade Mountain

On the morning of April 22, 2003, during the Disney's Animal Kingdom 5th anniversary celebration, Imagineering executive designer Joe Rohde took the stage to discuss how far the park had come and make a major announcement about its future. That was the day he revealed the first details about Expedition Everest: Legend of the Forbidden Mountain, set to open in Spring 2006.

For nearly three years, anticipation for the new attraction grew as Guests visiting the park began to see the first construction walls appear in Asia. They knew something was afoot...

It wasn't long before Disney was "Taking Adventure to New Heights," and the steel superstructure of Florida's latest mountain started to peek over the fences.

One of the first elements of the project to be completed was the bridge from Theater in the Wild, leading to a new pathway into Asia. Not only did the path open traffic flow in this area of the park, but it also allowed Guests to see Everest's construction up close.

Excitement built as earth was moved, the foundation was poured, and the mountain went vertical. And then we saw it... the first pieces of twisting steel that were to be part of the track for the ride. One could only wonder how it would all come together.

As it turns out, it wouldn't come together at all. Expedition Everest is actually an extraordinarily complex attraction, comprised of three separate structures that interweave with one another but never touch: the rigid mountain, the flexible coaster track and the dynamic figure of the yeti itself.

As time went on, Expedition Everest grew larger and larger, finally topping out as the tallest (from ground level) mountain at Walt Disney World.

The photos above and below provide fascinating glimpses into different stages of the construction process. Exterior scaffolding was required in order to complete all the detail work on the mountain, but an ordinary scaffold structure would have been impossible to build at this scale. Instead, connection points were built into the mountain where the scaffold supports could be attached. As each layer was completed and removed, it was a simple patch job to disguise the evidence.

Look closely at the picture above, and you may also notice a train on the track leading up from the stone fortress. It's actually just a partial train (only the back two cars), populated with plywood cutouts to represent passengers, and it's being tugged along the track manually by a pair of Imagineers. At this stage of the project, it was important to bring a train through to check for clearances, ensuring that none of the rockwork or other show elements would come too close once the ride was in operation.

April 7, 2006, nearly three years from the date it was announced, Expedition Everest sent its first trainload of passengers across the Forbidden Mountain on their way to ascend the highest peak on Earth. Did they make it? Or are the local legends about the yeti, fierce protector of the mountain, in fact true? We may never know... unless we decide to make the trip ourselves.

Birth of a Mountain

As we established at the end of my last post, I spent some time working the mine at Big Thunder way back in the day. How far back? Well, the photo above is the view I had as I moseyed out to the mountain each morning. Notice something missing? Here's the view looking back the other direction, about a year or so later:

This was 1990-92, and that's the original Frontierland Railroad Station, just across a grassy field where Splash Mountain sits today. As a young Cast Member and Disney Parks fan, it was great fun working at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad during this period and getting to step out and watch the newest mountain in the Magic Kingdom grow right out of the ground.

The first piece of the Splash Mountain project to be built was the bridge along the Rivers of America, put in place so Guests could still access Big Thunder during construction. Once the bridge was complete, the construction walls went up, featuring colorful cartoon artwork that invited folks to come back and join Br'er Rabbit in his Laughing Place in Fall 1992.

Similar in many ways to the construction of Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain slowly grew from steel superstructure to rockwork cages to finished cement. In the photo above, you can make out the beam that would ultimately support the old tree up on Chickapin Hill. Below (photo ©Disney), the rockwork cage for the tree is in place, officially "topping off" the structure. The topping off ceremony, a key milestone in any major construction effort, put the orange Mickey flag on top of the mountain.

Although technically referred to as "rockwork," the technique of sculpting cement over cages of bent rebar and chicken wire was used here to create just about everything, from the clay hillsides of the mountain to the fallen logs and other "wood" elements. Building it in this way helps Splash Mountain hold up to the constant barrage of weather and water.

To make it all look more natural, the mountain is designed with tiers of planters built into the rockwork, allowing real greenery to cascade over the hilltops.

As with any new Disney attraction, once Splash Mountain was built, everything needed to go through rigorous testing. Of course, most attractions are contained within buildings. The logs of Splash Mountain had to make their rounds in full view of the park's Guests. This became especially awkward when Cast Members began previewing the attraction, another important step in testing that helps the operators work through loading and dispatching processes with real people.

The wait was finally over in October 1992, when Splash Mountain had its official grand opening, forever becoming a part of Frontierland at the Magic Kingdom.

One last note about the opening: On the morning of the scheduled opening event for the press, it rained. Disney was prepared as always, with boxes of umbrellas and ponchos ready to hand out so the show could go on. The crew was then invited back two days later, complete with hot air balloons and pyrotechnics, to re-stage the entire event for the cameras, creating the official photo (©Disney) you see above.

To Space Mountain... And Beyond!

Space Mountain is the iconic symbol of Tomorrowlands (and one Discoveryland) the world over. The attraction, originally conceived in 1965 as Space Port, was Walt Disney's idea. He wanted to duplicate the success of the Matterhorn at Disneyland with a roller coaster in the dark, simulating a rocket ride through outer space. It would be a decade before the first Space Mountain became a reality, finally making its debut at Walt Disney World.

The main building of Space Mountain encloses a space roughly 300 feet in diameter, reaching a height of 183 feet (to the top of the highest spire). The structure was built first, and all of the track, trains and other interior elements were then brought in through the side before the walls were completed. (images ©Disney)

One of the most unique elements of the Space Mountain design is the concrete ribs along the exterior. Imagineer John Hench describes how it came about in his book Designing Disney - Imagineering and the Art of the Show:

"In the construction of the building, the engineers selected precast concrete and steel T beams for the main roof structure. They wanted the beams facing inside the building, but I wanted them facing outside, to provide a smooth surface in the interior on which we could project images. The distance between the T beams varies, from narrow at the top to wider at the bottom; on the cone-shaped roof, this gives an appropriately dynamic effect of forced perspective. The resulting exterior design is strong, simple and visually effective."

The original sponsor of Space Mountain, RCA, provided the computer technology that made the ride possible. It became the first computer-controlled roller coaster, allowing the operation of multiple trains on the same track simultaneously, greatly increasing capacity.

Space Mountain made its debut in January 1975 to great fanfare, forever changing the skyline of Tomorrowland and launching a generation of new Disney thrill attractions.

A Royal Foundation

We begin our look at Disney under construction with the central icon of the Magic Kingdom, Cinderella Castle. Since opening day in 1971, the castle has looked pretty much the same, an easily recognized symbol of the joy and magic of Walt Disney World (first 3 photos ©Disney).

It didn't start that way, though. Before topping out at 189 feet, Cinderella Castle started below what is now ground level. The "first floor" of the Magic Kingdom is comprised of a series of facilities connected by passages known as Utilidors. The central corridor of the Utilidor system can be seen in the following image, along with the first signs of vertical construction on the castle walls. Much of this would soon be covered with earth claimed from the formation of Seven Seas Lagoon out in front of the park.

Once the superstructure was complete, detail work began on the castle exterior and interior spaces. Cinderella Castle was finished ahead of much of the rest of the park, so that promotional photos and film could be shot in advance of opening day. The castle stood as a reminder of the ultimate goal for the rest of the crews working on the Magic Kingdom. Take a close look at the clock face on the front of the castle, and you'll see it's a placeholder, stating "Remember Opening Oct. 1971."

Today, all that concrete, steel, Fiberglas and Imagineering artistry blend together seamlessly in the form of a sparkling jewel at the heart of a fairytale kingdom. It's as if Cinderella Castle just appeared here... like magic.