Editing Epcot (section)

=== 1960s: Experimental concept ===
{{Main|EPCOT (concept)}}
[[File:Progress City Model 2024 (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|The remaining portion of the Progress City model, the original concept for the city of EPCOT, seen on display from the [[PeopleMover (Magic Kingdom)|PeopleMover]] at Magic Kingdom in 2025]]
The genesis for EPCOT was originally conceived as a [[utopia]]n city of the future by [[Walt Disney]] in the 1960s. The concept was an acronym for [[EPCOT (concept)|Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow]], often interchanging "city" and "community."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Patches |first1=Matt |title=Inside Walt Disney's Ambitious, Failed Plan to Build the City of Tomorrow |url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/news/a35104/walt-disney-epcot-history-city-of-tomorrow/ |website=esquire.com |date=May 20, 2015 |access-date=May 12, 2020}}</ref> In Walt Disney's words in 1966: "EPCOT will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed but will always be introducing and testing, and demonstrating new materials and new systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world of the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise."

Walt Disney's original vision, sometimes called Progress City, would have been home to 20,000 residents and would be a living laboratory showcasing cutting-edge technology and [[urban planning]]. It was to be built in the shape of a circle with an urban city center in the center with community buildings, schools, and recreational complexes. It would be surrounded by rings of residential areas and industrial areas, all connected by [[monorails|monorail]] and [[PeopleMover]] lines. Automobile traffic would be kept underground, leaving pedestrians safe above ground. This [[radial plan]] concept is strongly influenced by British planner [[Ebenezer Howard]] and his [[Garden Cities of To-morrow]].

Disney went as far as petitioning the [[Florida State Legislature]] for the creation of the [[Reedy Creek Improvement District]] (RCID), with the authority of a governmental body over the Walt Disney World land. The RCID was established in 1967. However, Walt Disney was not able to obtain funding and permission to start work on his Florida property until he agreed to first build the [[Magic Kingdom]] theme park. He died in 1966, nearly five years before Magic Kingdom opened.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 1, 2017 |title=35 incredible facts about Disney's EPCOT theme park |url=https://abc13.com/happy-birthday-epcot-disney-theme-park-turns-35/2475648/ |access-date=March 14, 2022 |website=ABC13 Houston |language=en}}</ref>