How Disney Made Their Own Lagoon

Have you been to the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World? If so, you’ve walked on the Seven Seas Lagoon… kinda. You see, by that I mean most of the earth that the Magic Kingdom was built on was actually the earth that made up the Seven Seas Lagoon. That’s because the Seven Seas Lagoon is man-made.
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When it came time to build Walt Disney World, which was at the time the largest private construction project in American history, Disney turned to Admiral Joe Fowler. Fowler had played a vital role decades earlier, overseeing the construction of Disneyland in the 1950s.
At the time of the planning, the Magic Kingdom was really supposed to be the only theme park it would have. The true purpose of all of that land in Florida was for EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. It was Walt’s dream to build a real-life functioning city of the future that would not only be the home to thousands, but would also stand as an example of cutting edge technology.
However without Walt, the future of the city was in question, and so Disney’s focus was on getting phase one of the project complete, which included the theme park and a handful of resorts. However even though EPCOT itself was has an unsure future, Disney still found ways to incorporate its ideas into the resort.
Rather than putting the park services behind the Magic Kingdom, Fowler and Disney opted to put the services under the park, in a series of tunnels and rooms known as the utilidors. This was similar to the way Walt had planned to put much of EPCOT’s services and utilities, not to mention a highway, under the city itself.
There was one problem though; they couldn’t dig down. Due to Florida’s shallow waterbed, Disney could only dig down about four feet before running into problems. So the solution they came up with was to build the utilidors on the ground level, and then build the Magic Kingdom above it.
It was a plan that caused the land preparation costs to more than double, from four million dollars to nine million dollars. It would also require a lot of earth to fill in the spaces and cover the ground utilidors. That earth would come from the area that would eventually become the Seven Seas Lagoon.
Over eight million cubic yards of dirt was scooped out of the land, simultaneously creating a 200 acre man-made lagoon as well as forming the ground base for the Magic Kingdom. It was an impressive feat that required a fleet of earth movers.
It almost worked perfectly too. One mistake Disney made was that they dumped much of the earth in the order they scooped it up. What this meant was that the lowest levels of the utilidors contained all of the fertile top-soil from the lagoon, and the top contained all of the clay and sediment from the bottom of the lagoon.
This caused issues closer to the park’s opening when Disney was in the process of transplanting trees and flora from farms into the park, which needed that soil to flourish. This resulted in them having to dig deeper than usual when planting the trees.
In any case, in one swoop Disney built a massive man-made lagoon, elevated Florida’s ground level, improved on Disneyland’s design, and took a step into putting Walt’s EPCOT ideas into action. On paper it all seemed crazy, but it was just the kind of crazy Disney specialized in.

[@militarymeagan9816]

Damn those water skiers are brave to get in that alligator infested water lol!!! 🐊🐊

[@eurossocial]

Wow! I like very much these kind of Disney construction videos. Show us more of the stages process of how the lagoon was build. Thank you. 😊

[@militarymeagan9816]

Those are some brave water skiiers!! I wouldn't want to run into a gator! I use to swim at River Country as a child and can't believe they never had one get in there. The only barrier was some puny ropes..

[@Finallybianca]

Meagan's Makeup they had then get in all the time.

[@DriveBreakFixRepeat70]

Rob you should make a video of all the books you use to do some of this research or ones you recommend to learn more about Disney history

[@crunch1757]

Hail disney Full of grace The mouse is with thee

[@nightisright1873]

Failed racist cartoons Anti Semantic

[@SeriouslyCreepy]

Love the vintage stuff!

[@mikekadlec3481]

Thanks. Very interesting. Do you know why when WDW first opened The Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake used to be crystal blue and safe for swimming, and the beaches used to be Sandy White? From what I've read, it seems that both lakes are now dirty, murky and unsafe for swimming, etc. Is it lack of maintenance, upkeep, etc? I think this would make a great story for you.

[@Meatball2022]

Gators there. One would be crazy to swim. They killed a kid a few years ago

[@bnamesmith]

People living in Epcot eh... Sign me up!! :D

[@christalbot210]

Oh, you and me both! I would have LOVED to live in E.P.C.O.T. (which, at the time, was the Experimental Prototype CITY Of Tomorrow). Sad that it never came to fruition, but I agree it never would have worked without Walt himself.

[@mikegruber172]

@@christalbot210 Celebration

[@christalbot210]

@@mikegruber172 Which...doesn't really work. Not they way they wanted it to.

[@ejf0255]

Not to mention the first man made wave machine.... Which is still kinda standing.... Well the structure. :-) Oh you covered that years ago.... Silly me. LoL

[@CavBeatJazzSpecFan]

So the next question is, how did they fill the lagoon with water? I'd be curious to know where they got the water from, how did they get it there and how long did it take to fill it up.

[@user-uf3wc7hy4l]

A really big hose

[@CavBeatJazzSpecFan]

Had to be.

[@chad33e]

I think they just had a dam from Bay Lake and they removed the dam. It was probably somewhere near the road that passes under the water.

[@rynef5999]

If that area has as much shallow ground water as is claimed, they may not have had to do anything. The water would have just seeped in from the ground. Just some conjecture

[@repr26]

If you dig a hole deep enough to get below the water table, it will fill with ground water. This is why you can drill a deep well almost anywhere. The water table in Florida is very shallow. One to two feet in some places.

[@polemius01]

In older videos, I see people swimming in the lagoon. Was there no alligator presence back then?

[@nightisright1873]

Lol

[@kevystead]

EPCOT. A look at the future. Dubai "Hold my Beer" lol

[@mikegruber172]

so would they have made the lake if they didnt need the dirt??

[@browpetj]

Any info on Disney's 'dark water system?' Purpose, process, payoff?

[@PendragonDaGreat]

Which "You are Here" mugs are those on the wall? Because I'm always looking to see new ones.

[@mikegruber172]

hmmm, no videos of the utilidoors being built?

[@benjacobs574]

So we can assume that the Seven Seas Lagoon is in fact quite shallow itself.

[@mikegruber172]

deep

[@VNV67]

I wish I had a 5 dollar bill for every load of dirt I moved in that place. I was a earth mover operator back then. A trade I got when in the US ARMY. I have never been back there since and at 73 years old it don't look like it will happen.. Really look nice though...

[@miskelproducts41]

So, how deep is the lagoon?

[@MicrobyteAlan]

Thanks from Orlando

[@bbt305]

Fertile soil and fertile Myrtle! (Beach)

[@toughmanrandysavage3077]

They should have used slurry walls like the world trade center.

[@LoneStarRocker]

Without Walt they could ditch his Epcot idea completely.

[@juliakt1981]

What is the background song.

[@the7311]

9 million is nothing compared to how much they have.

[@the7311]

The Doomsday Channel 56 million is still nothing compared to what they have now.

[@the7311]

The Doomsday Channel Pixar movies alone generate a billion dollars

[@manormanman7092]

And let's build it in gator capital!!!!

[@benjaminyurovsky9167]

hey rob, i was wo dering if you know if the expansion of star wars land, toystory land, and the avatar land, will bring any roller coasters. Im a big fan of those and Disney so i was just wondering if you had any inside info on that Also do you think disney will any time soon put roller cossters in their parks Thanks

[@BrerOswald]

Benjamin Yurovsky Toy Story Land will have a coaster based on the slinky dog character. I'm sure you already know this, but Disney has a bunch of really fun and thrilling coasters.

[@benjaminyurovsky9167]

ok thank you Brer, are there any thrill rides we know of as if right now that might come to star wars land or avatar land?

[@BrerOswald]

Benjamin Yurovsky Flight of Passage at Avatar Land is a simulator based thrill ride. Nothing yet is confirmed about the Star Wars Land attractions list.

[@MattMcIrvin]

There have been a couple of rides announced: some sort of Millennium Falcon simulator ride in which riders can pilot the ship, and an indoor ride involving a battle scene between stormtroopers and Resistance soldiers. No roller coasters (yet).

[@MattMcIrvin]

...There's been a lot of buzz, which may still just be rumor, about a Guardians of the Galaxy-themed roller coaster (at least partly indoors) replacing Ellen's Energy Adventure at Epcot. That is probably years out.

[@theutopianoutopioan464]

Disney's lagoon is beautiful but sadly, because of the microbes it isn't swimmable!

[@MidwaytoMainStreet]

It's more unswimmable due to the gators in the area. While there was one case of amoebic meningoencephalitis that unfortunately killed a boy in 1980, it's rare enough that it's not really a roadblock preventing people from swimming in Florida. In fact River Country remained open for another 21 years after the incident without any other instances of it occurring. The gators would serve a much greater risk at this point.

[@theutopianoutopioan464]

Rob Plays, I thought it was the amoebas that makes Florida's lakes unsafe to swim in

[@noahj7824]

It’s been a myth that’s been debunked only about a million times

[@Meatball2022]

Water in the lagoon is just as safe as any water anywhere in Florida. The water is fine. The gators and snakes are the problem

[@trentwerner7398]

These videos have gotten shorter and shorter... I liked it when you didn’t rush through topics for the ADD audience and took more time to really flush things out some more

[@Danksta]

1 person missed the like button

[@guidedmeditation2396]

Disney made the right decision not to create the actual city of the future. They were better off creating "Celebration" a beautiful idyllic community with CC&Rs near their corporate offices. They could have built a sassy and expensive experimental city but as long as you stock the city with people you will have rapes, murders, thefts, vandalism, shop lifting, purse snatching, domestic disputes etc. Disney was not capable of building a useful actual EPCOT. Even if they had the money. It takes vision and enormous amounts of genius. Disney is the king of style and window dressing but an actual community would take more than that. I believe Elon Musk is capable of putting together an actual EPCOT however he would run into the same problem every society has and that is people are volatile and dangerous.

[@mikegruber172]

celebrations residents don't agree with you

[@trentwerner7398]

I appreciate what you’re saying, I also very much disagree

[@theoctobercountry]

Four years after your original post----looks like Musk isn't capable of doing ANYTHING right! He's not the genius he pretended to be.

[@guidedmeditation2396]

@@theoctobercountry FUnny you say this ab out the richest man in the world. You make him sound like yourself

[@theoctobercountry]

Heh, yeah, keep telling yourself that. The buffoonish way Musk has totally destroyed Twitter indicates he isn't even a competent businessman. Every single decision he's made has been worse than the last.@@guidedmeditation2396