” Celebrating America’s Diversity, Spirit and Innovation. Recall the Past, Live the Present, Dream the Future.
Every day, a diverse and unlikely society, made up of every culture and race on earth, is working together to build a great nation.
We have a single vision – a new order based on the promise of democracy.
Our resources for building this nation are a rich mixture of land, family and beliefs – which we apply with our own brand of spirit, humor and innovation.
As the nation has grown and changed, we are constantly reminded of how impossibly far we’ve come – and how far we still have to go.
Disney’s America celebrates these qualities which have always been the source of our strength and the beacon of hope to people everywhere.
Vision
While only in the conceptual phase, Disney’s America will be different from anything previously built by the Walt Disney Company.
As well as offering rides and attractions for which we are famous, Disney’s America will be a venue for people of all ages – especially American youth – to debate the future of their nation and learn about the past by living its history. This Park will serve as the ideal complement to our nation’s leading museums, monuments and landmarks in Washington, D.C. Just as important, the Park will also be a celebration of the diversity of America, the plurality of this nation and of the conflicts that have defined us as a people.
Special Events
Disney’s America is an extension of Walt Disney’s desire not only to entertain and inspire, but to educate.
The Park will be equipped to stage detailed re-enactments of significant Civil War and revolutionary War battles. It will also have facilities to televise and uplink political debates, public affairs programs and TV specials. The American Teacher Awards, established by the Walt Disney Company to recognize leading educators, will be televised from the site.
Disney’s America will also serve as the venue for symposia among leading historical groups, writers, educators, journalists and students to discuss and debate issues of the past, present and future. There may be an opportunity to establish a working broadcast newsroom or newspaper bureau at Disney’s America so that future generations may learn more about the key roles of media in society and the importance and significance of freedom of the press.
Environmental Sensitivity
Disney’s America will be an example of our company’s commitment to creating communities that are unique in their design and execution and harmonious with their natural setting. It will incorporate numerous innovative ideas to protect and enhance the environmentally sensitive features of this beautiful site. For example, forest and wildlife corridors will be protected by several hundred acres of open space. Greenbelt and conversation buffers will ensure that we not only harmonize with the environment, but with our neighbors as well.
Transportation
In keeping with Prince Williams County’s plan for commercial development, Disney’s America will be located just of I-66, in close proximity by car to Washington DC A proposed new I-66 interchange will allow guests to enter and exit the Park directly without affecting surrounding roads.
Economic Benefits
Disney’s America will create a powerful and long-running economic engine for Prince William County and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent on the park’s construction and thousands of construction workers will be employed, all sparking the economy of the region.
When the Park opens in 1998, it will:
- directly create more that 3,000 new jobs in order to operate, maintain and manage the substantial project;
- indirectly create thousands of other jobs at surrounding businesses that support the activity created as a result of the project;
- generate millions of new tax dollars flowing to both the state and county each year;
- enhance the tourism base of the state and region.
Forging a Partnership with the Community
The Walt Disney Company has long been a creator of wonderful places based on imaginative ideas. As the third major North American Disney location, Disney’s America will be more than just an incredible park. Our vision is to create a 3000-acre showcase built as only the Walt Disney Company can – with quality, style and sensitivity. With Park as its heart, the surrounding greenbelt will carefully give rise to hotels, public golf courses, an employment center, residences and pastoral areas. Creation of this long term plan will begin only after the Park opens and will continue well into the next century.
Surrounded by several hundred acres of greenbelt and stands of timber, Disney’s America will occupy 1,200 acres of a 3,000 acre property in historic Prince William County, Virginia. The Park will be located directly off of U.S. Interstate Highway 66, in close proximity by car to Washington, DC
The Walt Disney Company will create a unique and historically detailed environment in Prince Williams County, Virginia, which celebrates our nation’s richness of diversity, spirit and innovation – Disney’s America.
The location has been chosen with great care. Disney’s America is in close proximity to Washington, DC, the world’s living symbol of freedom and democracy with its clear focus on our nation’s public affairs and international relations. And it is sites in Virginia, the “old Dominion” state, with its rich historical heritage.
The history of America is closely linked to that of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Jamestown was the first permanent English-speaking settlement in North America. The surrenders ending both the American Revolution and the Civil War occurred here. The state is called the “Mother of Presidents” because eight chief executives were born here. In commerce and inventiveness, Virginia has also been a leader: the first manufacturing plant in the United States, the first iron furnace, the country’s first transportation canal, the state where the mechanical reaper was invented, the site of the oldest daily newspaper in the Republic.
The immediate access to Disney’s America for million of annual tourists, as a complement to their experience of our nation’s capital in Washington, DC, makes this site in Virginia the ideal choice for the Walt Disney Company.”