Water, Water Everywhere

When Walt Disney first laid his eyes upon the spot in Florida that would eventually become Walt Disney World, he looked over a swamp.  While the location was ideal, the logistical problems of transforming the land were immense.

In order to create the vast clear lake that sits in front of the Magic Kingdom, the existing water and debris had to be removed.  A great deal of earth was removed from the spot to where the theme park now sits.  This allowed the construction of the ground level corridors which now crisscross below the park being covered by the excess dirt. The public area of the theme park sits upon what is essentially the second floor of the facility.

One of the major challenges that Disney imagineers faced with the property was what to do with all of the water.  Disney people are happy to tell you, that if you count all of the boats that Disney owns on the property, they are one of the largest navies in the world.  All of the water adds a beautiful and restful backdrop to the property.  Many of the Disney hotels are built on lakefronts.

In order to build on the site, the company dug over 50 miles of canals.  These forced water to go into certain channels and protected the other areas from flooding.  For an idea of how massive this project was, consider that the canals would stretch from Georgetown to Louisville if laid end to end.

The first canal was dug and ran in a straight and true fashion.  This was obviously the least expensive way.  Plans had been made to build the water control system in an efficient grid system.

When Walt came in from California to evaluate the process, the construction manager proudly showed off the crews work.  He was surprised by the reaction of his boss.  Rather than being pleased with the already completed work and plans, he demanded that all work stop until new plans could be devised.

His concern?  Rivers don't run straight.  The canal looked, quite frankly, too much like a canal.  Walt wanted everything that was done to look natural.  Every other water course would be constructed with curves even though that increased the cost and made the system less efficient.

Walt Disney wanted to be sure that his unreality was as realistic as possible.