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===Walt Disney's Experimental Community of Tomorrow===
The genesis of Epcot began in the early 1960s with Walt Disney himself. After having many grandchildren, Walt began to worry about the world they would grow up in. He looked around the cities of America and though thought he could do better. The cities were full of crime, disorganized, dirty and hectic. Disneyland was the opposite of these things and Walt decided he could take the Disneyland philosophy and apply it to the real world. Disneyland also proved that Walt and his company was very efficient in the art of building and designing buildings. With that idea in mind, he began to read about how to start a city.
The idea of a utopia city got it's name in 1966. Walt Disney narrated a video in witch he described his dream city. The city would be housed near Disney World, and would be called the Experimental Community of Tomorrow or EPCOT. Walt called EPCOT, “the most exciting, by far the most important” and the heart of what he planned to do in Disney World. The city would take its cues from the new ideas and technologies of American industry and would be a “community of tomorrow”. Walt wanted to plan and design every detail of the city, in order to meet the public's needs. Industry was also expected to partner with Disney to solve the problems of the society. Walt said that EPOCT EPCOTT would never be finished, it would always be improving. He hoped that when it was built , it would house about 20,000 people.
EPCOT was laid out to be the perfect city. It took it's design from Disneyland, in that their would be a central hub that roads and monorails would connect to the other parts of the city. The center “hub” of EPCOT would have been a large business area. The area would have been under a dome that would control the temperature and weather. The busines area would have also included office buildings, shopping, and the “crown jewel” of EPCOT, the Cosmopolitan Hotel. The hotel would be located at the center of EPCOT and would be 30 stories tall. The Hotel would also house (in the basement) the transportation lobby of EPCOT. Underground, People Movers would transport people to the various parts of EPCOT. Cars and Trucks would also have underground highways that they would be able to use. No gas vehicles would travel above land. Also in the business area of EPCOT would be a shopping center featuring items from around the world. It would also feature offices, theaters, nightlife and restaurants.
Outside of the business area would be the high density apartment housing. Citizens who lived here would have the luxury of being close to theg business area, but would have live in apartment complexes. Outside of the apartment housing was to be the recreation area. The recreation area would have consisted of things such as pools, parks, churches and schools. Beyond the recreation area would have been the residential neighborhood. This is where a large number of families would have lived. The area would have consisted of housing and small recreation areas such as playgrounds.
The final part of EPCOT would have been the industrial center. This is where companies from around the world would work on various projects. Walt wanted guests to be able to visit these companies and hopefully take some inspiration for industry home with them. In order to get to the rest of Walt Disney World and the EPCOT industrial center, citizens of EPCOT would take a monorail. The Monorail and the People Mover were expected to be the main methods of transportation in EPCOT thus eliminating traffic.
In 1978 Disney announced to the world they would be constructing a new theme park, the EPCOT Center. Construction began on May 1, 1979 and was completed September 27, 1982. Epcot went under 19 different design renovations before the final World Showcase/Future World design was accepted. Originally, the east side of Future World was supposed to have shallow lagoons. This idea was eventually scrapped and East Future World became the dry side, while West Future World became the wet one. 4,000 workers worked on phase 1 of Epcot. 10,000 workers and 3,000 designers were used in total during the creation of Epcot. This included moving an astonishing.
While the basic plans for Epcot had now been finalized, Imagineers decided that they needed an icon, something in the skyline to draw guests into the park. The Imagineers liked the idea of the dome that Montreal had built for the 1967 World's Fair, but wanted something a little more dramatic. What they ended up building would be the world's first geometric sphere, Spaceship Earth. Science fiction writer Raymond Bradbury helped design the sphere, which was 160 feet in diameter. Disney also enlisted the help of MIT to determine what kind of pressure the sphere would create under it. Disney feared that the pressure would create a wind tunnel underneath the sphere, but this ended up being untrue. Another problem that engineers faced, was how to hold the sphere up. There had been little data available on geometric spheres so Disney had to look inward for a solution. What they decided to do was put six large legs between 120 and 160 feet into the ground for support. The legs were then reinforced at theirbase, before the sphere was built. Inside the sphere an elevator, track, and show scenes for Spaceship Earth were built.
There is actually two spheres located within Spaceship earth and outer and an inner. The inside sphere is made of steel, pyramid shaped pipes. The outside was then covered with Alucobond pyramids, a polyester plastic, covered in two sheets of aluminum. The two layer sphere solved two problems for Imagineers. The first, was the need to protect Spaceship Earth from fire and weather damage. The Alucobond protects the inside sphere, while also looking pleasant for guests. The other problem that Alucobond solved was the issue of run-off rainwater. Imagineers left a gap between the Alucobond pyramids which allows water to run into a gutter system in the inner sphere before eventually draining in World Showcase.
==Opening==
Epcot officially opened October 1, 1982 exactly 11 years after the Magic Kingdom. The opening was considered more of a soft opening however, as only Spaceship Earth was dedicated. On hand were dignitaries from 23 countries who poured a gallon of water into the Fountain of Nations as a sign of unity. A Grand Opening Week was held October 17 through October 27. VIP members, key press, Celebrities including Drew Barrymore and Marie Osmond, and top executives from sponsor companies were on hand for the events. On October 24 Epcot was officially dedicated.
{{Quotation|To all who come to this place of joy, hope and friendship—welcome.
==Additions To Epcot Since 1982==
After the Grand Opening in October of 1982, EPCOT Center continued to expand rapidly. The expansion, known as Phase II began on October 1, 1983 with the addition the Horizons pavilion. Horizons was sponsored by General Electric which took guests into the 21st century to see what the future might be like. The attraction would be would be one of EPOCT Center's most popular rides in the 1980s. Exactly one year after the addition of Horizons, the Morocco pavilion opened in World Showcase. Future World saw even more expansion in 1986 when on January 15, The Living Seas opened. The Living Sea's focused on oceanic study and was sponsored by United Technologies. In the Living Seas, guests would board ride vehicles and witness large aquariums with all kinds of fish and sea creatures. World Showcase was the next to expand when in 1988 Norway was added followed by the popular attraction the Malestorm a year later. The Malestorm was a boat ride which transported guests to the Norway of myth. In 1989 the final pavilion was added to Epcot, The Wonders of Life. The pavilion was sponsored by Met Life and featured the popular motion simulator Body Wars. The pavilions completion signaled the end of Epcot getting major additions.
The mid 1990s brought a lot of change to EPCOT Center. For starters, in 1994 the name of the park was changed to Epcot Center 94'. This change helped add the World Fair atmosphere that now defined EPCOT Center. Also in 1994 CommuniCore closed its doors. The pavilion was becoming somewhat dated, so it was under a long renovation. The pavilion reopened July 1, 1994 as Innoventions. Innoventions was themed similar to CommuniCore in that it featured hands on technology. The new exhibits however were much flashier and appealed to a younger audience. Besides changing exhibits the pavilion also changed color, becoming much darker and metallic looking. Horizons also went through changes in 1994 when General Electric canceled it's sponsorship. The attraction closed, but was reopened in 1995 due to all the other closures in Future World. Also In 1995 the name EPCOT 94' was updated to EPCOT 95, before finally settling on Epcot in 1996. The new name was not capitalized as it had been in the past, witch meant that it was no longer an anagram. More closures hit Epcot in 1996 when the World of Motion closed. The pavillion would re-open in 1999 as Test Track, still sponsored by General Motors. Test Track took guests through the rigors of the testing procedures cars go through. Test Track is the fastest ride in Walt Disney World, reaching up to 65 mph.
Controversy struck Epcot in 1999 when the popular attraction Horizons was closed permanently. No official reason was given for the closure although lack of sponsorship certainly played a role. Another rumor stated that the pavilion was sitting on a sink hole, which was leading to severe structural damage. More controversy was created when a Mickey arm and wand with the dedication 2000 was added to the top of Spaceship Earth.. Many guests complained that the hand took away from the original intention of Epcot without adding anything. The "2000" dedication was changed to "Epcot" starting in 2001 and was finally removed in 2007.
Epcot stayed relativity calm until 2003 when Mission Space took over area where Horizons was formally held. The new attraction was a motion simulator “thrill ride” which gave guests the feeling they were flying to the Mars. Another simulator was added to the Land in the form of the new attraction Soarin'. This motion simulator gave guests the felling they were hang gliding over California. In 2006 The Living Seas was re-themed and named The Living Seas With Nemo and Friends. The attraction took inspiration from the Disney Pixar movie Finding Nemo. Nemo and his friends were now projected onto the large tanks adding a Finding Nemo story to the attraction. Although the live sea creatures still existed within the tanks, some guests complained that too many characters were being added to Epcot. The final major change came to Epcot in 2007 when the Wonders of Life Pavilion closed. The pavilion had not been sponsored sine since 2001 when MetLife dropped it's its sponsorship, which certainly played a factor in it's the attractions closure.
==Current Future World Pavilions Pavilions==
[[Image:EpcotGuidemap.jpg|thumb|The current guidemap for Epcot.]]
