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The Walt Disney Company

Explore episode Jun 22, 2026
History
Walt's EPCOT: A Domed City of the Future That Never Was

The Walt Disney Company · Jun 22, 2026 History

Walt's Florida Project wasn't another Disneyland — it was EPCOT: a domed 50-acre downtown with no cars, fully pedestrian walkways, monorails, underground tunnels, R&D facilities for America's greatest companies, and 20,000 permanent residents in a self-governing city carved out by the state of Florida. He recorded his pitch video in October 1966 and died two months later.

7m 30s

Where this was said

The Florida Project & Walt's Last Dream (1961-1966)

At 3:55:20 · chapter starts 3:41:55

Post-Disneyland, Walt becomes restless. He uses the 1964 New York World's Fair — designing four corporate pavilions including It's a Small World, the Carousel of Progress, and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln (where Disney Imagineering invents audio-animatronic robotics) — as both a prototype for Florida and a test bed for new technologies. Three of the four World's Fair rides transfer directly to Disneyland. The Florida project is conceived as something far beyond another theme park: a 27,000-acre site (twice the size of Manhattan, purchased secretly under subsidiary names) encompassing a new airport, a Magic Kingdom theme park (5x the size of Disneyland), a 1,000-acre industrial park for R&D offices, and at its center, EPCOT — a domed 50-acre downtown with no cars, radial pedestrian walkways, monorails, underground tunnels, high-density apartments, and 20,000 permanent residents in a self-governing city with its own schools and public services. Walt records his full EPCOT pitch film in October 1966 — his second-to-last recorded appearance — ending with 'we're ready to go right now.' He is diagnosed with lung cancer days later. Emergency surgery finds a massive tumor. On December 15, 1966 — 10 days after his 65th birthday — Walt Disney dies, with the Florida Project barely underway.

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