Back to the 1964 New York World's Fair again, specifically revisiting Ford Magic Skyway.
We talked about the innovation of the Carousel of Progress's theater, and the pump-driven boat flume of "it's a small world," so that leaves one ride system from the fair still untouched.
When Walt Disney and WED Enterprises were working with Ford on their pavilion, they were trying to imagine a way of continuously loading thousands of guests in Ford automobiles in a way that would be simple, reliable, and efficient. The idea came to Walt while touring the Ford factory, and John Hench told the story to Sam Genneway:
We discovered the idea for the New York World’s Fair WEDway PeopleMover system while on a business trip to the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. Walt and I were invited to visit the mill where Ford made steel for car bodies. We saw a device for handling steel ingots, masses of glowing red-hot metal. The ingots were moved around on tracks powered by rollers from one area to another while being transformed into sheet steel for making cars. Walt asked, “Do you think we could put some kind of seat on that type of conveyor, or some kind of arrangement for people to ride on…do you think this thing would handle it?” I said, “Sure, look at the weight carried here. I bet that Roger Broggie would know how to do it.
Broggie, of course, did know how to do it, as did wheel-master Bob Gurr. For the Skyway, WED installed a series of constantly-spinning tires along the track that accelerated -- or decelerated, if necessary -- the Ford cars as they traveled along, keeping everything constantly moving at the correct speed. The propulsion being on the track, rather than in the vehicles, meant redundancies to keep everything moving should one break down, and continuous movement meant massive efficiency. Gurr even designed a conveyor belt "speed ramp" for the load and unload areas, which turned a guest's natural walking speed into the pace needed to catch up to a moving vehicle.
The attraction was a hit, but Walt saw the technology of the ride system as being far more useful than just entertainment.
Following the World's Fair, Walt turned his attention to his idea of a master-planned city of the future. Meant to be a comfortable, progressive, efficient, safe, and eco-friendly template for people to live in, he called it "Progress City," then, as he bought land in Florida to build it, changing the name to Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.
A key design intention of E.P.C.O.T. was going to be an overhaul of the concept of a city's urban transportation systems. Roads would be diverted below the city, but would primarily be for trucks and other industry; not for the residents. The citizens of E.P.C.O.T. would get around using two phases of transportation: high speed rail coming and going across green space from the neighborhoods and industrial zones to the city center, and smaller-scale transportation to get around the city once in it.
For the high-speed rail, Walt already had his system in place. In Disneyland, he was using Tomorrowland as a test bed for some of his ideas for urban improvement, and since 1959 a monorail had been running there as a proof of concept. For the in-city transportation, though, Walt didn't have his proof of concept until the Magic Skyway.
Billed as an all-electric, constantly-moving system, WED began working on their appropriately-named PeopleMover following the World's Fair. The Skyway ride system replaced the Ford cars with boxes individually sized for a small family and connected in small trains, radiating out from a constantly-moving central hub to rapidly take residents around the city scape and out to nearby parks and residential areas, efficiently, reliably, and safely.
Though a model was built prior to his death, Walt unfortunately never got to see a full scale PeopleMover built. His death, even more unfortunately, also meant the idea of a massively planned city including PeopleMovers never came to fruition, but we did get one in Disneyland wrapping around Tomorrowland to allow us to dream of what the future could have been.
Meanwhile on the Florida Project, Tomorrowland opened without its own PeopleMover, but the East Coast did not have to wait long for their own new-and-improved version. Rather than spinning wheels, the Magic Kingdom WEDway PeopleMover used linear induction motors to magnetically push the trains along even more reliably, creating the perfect urban transportation system.
The PeopleMover served well enough as a pleasant dose of motion over the walkways of the world of tomorrow, but it also did double duty as a tour guide for the sites of Tomorrowland. Upon entering in 1975, you would be naturally drawn towards the center and Rocket Tower Plaza. A quick ride up a ramp brought you to the load zone -- here a constantly-moving turntable, rather than a belt -- and your PeopleMover car took you through all that Tomorrowland had to offer, allowing you to sit back, relax, and plan your next move.
The trip started with a birds-eye view of the Central Plaza in front of Cinderella's Castle, then through a tunnel past a model of Progress City where the transportation system would be perfectly utilized. After that, it took you over the Grand Prix Raceway before its most memorable stretch -- through the darkness of the brand-new Space Mountain, allowing guests the chance to evaluate the coaster for themselves. That was followed by a bend around the Carousel of Progress, then a tunnel with windows giving views of the omnimover If You Had Wings and the CircleVision show America the Beautiful.
The attractions below it have changed, but -- unlike Disneyland -- the PeopleMover continues to entertain to this day in Tomorrowland. It is an important element to the entire land, giving constant kinetic energy and sounds above, and making the entire area feel like a working city full of hustle and bustle. It remains a constant piece of enjoyment, a pleasant ride with no wait, plenty of fun visuals, and a great sensation of motion, while adding so much atmosphere for the people walking below.
Meanwhile, as keeping up with the future has become harder and harder, the PeopleMover remains somehow feeling an optimistic peace of futurism. After Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom, WED's PeopleMover concept only found one more home at the Houston Intercontinental Airport; not even an actual city. For most of its life, Tomorrowland was there to give you excitement and hope about technology improving your life soon, and the PeopleMover still fits that tone.
While riding around, it's easy to imagine how a system like this could improve your city. You could walk up to a station, and in minutes be aboard a small car that would whisk you several blocks, safely above street level, to your next destination. The ecological impact is minimal -- even positive once you consider the reduction in car use -- and what it would do for connecting swaths of the city and opening up movement for thousands would be incredible. A city with a PeopleMover feels like a wonderful thing, and it still feels great to believe in that promise of tomorrow.
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