Hidden Mickey

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Hidden Mickey
And the Construction of Geodesic Domes

• By
• Joe Comm

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Hidden Mickey

• Behind every great design is a creative mind.

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• But this slideshow is about a different kind of
  Hidden Mickey. The kind that hide under the
  Magic Kingdom.

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• Do you ever wonder how the characters at Disney
  World parks seem to appear as if by, well, magic?
  There is a story behind that.

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• One day while strolling through Disneyland, Walt
  Disney saw a Frontierland cowboy walking through
  Tomorrowland. He then decided that for Disney
  World that some needs would have to be hidden.

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• Trash, costume characters, etc. had to be out of
  sight.

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• To do this, each area, section, or ride was first
  planned out in story boards. Then, the Imagineers
  constructed models, and viewed them in every
  angle.

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• To hide the utilities, underground tunnels were
  put in for Walt Disney World. Disney built a nine
  acre network of tunnels so Cast Members would be
  able to move around out of the public view!

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• The park was built over a huge underground
  complex. Disney did not dig tunnels under the
  Magic Kingdom. The corridors were built at ground
  level.

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• The tunnel complex consists of 15 foot high
  walkways, meeting rooms, computer rooms, etc.
  with all having exposed utilities (it somewhat
  resembled a parking garage).

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• The tunnel complex originates from the castle and
  spreads out like spokes from a wheel to the other
  lands. In fact, the bottom two floors of the
  castle consists of the tunnel complex.

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• The soil from the excavation of the Seven Seas
  Lagoon, around 5 million square feet, was heaped
  over this complex. Additionally, sand from the
  Seven Seas Lagoon excavation was used to line the
  Lagoon, Bay Lake and many other bodies of water.

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• The Seven Seas Lagoon is Walt Disney World's
  man-made lake. Although Bay Lake is a natural
  lake, soil from its bottom was also used to cover
  the complex

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• Thus, the pseudo-tunnel system was born. Another
  name for the system of tunnels under the Magic
  Kingdom is Utilidors, even though the internal
  Walt Disney World phone book does use the term
  "tunnels." Utilidor stands for utility corridor.

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Construction view of the castle foundation and
Utilidors
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• No guests under 16 is allowed in the tunnel
  system because it would bother children, seeing
  two Goofys passing each other, Mickey without a
  head, seeing Minnie eating with Snow White, and
  ruin the magic.

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• Walt Disney World guests do not realize the
  existence of this underground complex because
  they enter from the monorail. But, the tunnel
  system is considered by Cast Members as the 1st
  floor, and not really a tunnel system.

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• The entire Magic Kingdom is technically on the
  second and third floors. While most areas are on
  the 2nd floor, Fantasyland is on the 3rd floor.
  If you notice while in the park you will see how
  Fantasyland and the castle are higher.

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• The tunnel has the costumes for all the
  characters and themed areas hanging for the Cast
  Members.

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• With 1.2 millon pieces of clothing, it is the
  largest operating wordrobe department in the
  world. Each Cast Member has 3 costumes. The one
  s/he is wearing, on on the rack and one in the
  wash (or bag as the Cast Members call it).

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• From the center, an elevator with a special key,
  goes to the famous "secret" apartment inside the
  castle.

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• From various sites inside the octagonal tunnel,
  stairs and elevators go up to points "On Stage."

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• Usually, elevators go to kitchens, and stairs go
  right out into the park or into a shop. The next
  time you see an unmarked door remember the tunnel
  system.

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• There are many hidden entrances throughout the
  park. As an example in Main Street there is a
  door that leads to the back of the bank where
  Cast Members get their checks.

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• There is a door besides the carousel. Walk
  through the door and go down some stairs and you
  are in the utilidors.

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• Gasoline powered vehicles are not allowed in the
  tunnels for safety reasons.

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• Normally, the only exception is the Brinks truck
  which collects money from Cash Control.

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• My most memorable joke took place in the
  utilidors, which are simply incredible. We were
  standing in the hallway, below a big 15"-18" tube
  and our guide stopped us and said "ok everybody
  quiet, listen" and we heard something flow
  through the tubes and our guide then explained
  that the tube system above us was actually used
  to transport money from stores and kiosks
  throught the park to a central "Collection room".
  afterwards he explained that it was the trash
  collection system that whisked trash to a
  collection room at (I believe) 35 mph.

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• Cash Control is located underneath Pinocchio's
  Village Haus. It never closes. Ambulances are
  allowed to drive in the tunnel, but only in cases
  of extreme emergency.

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• As an aside, Epcot and the Disney Studios do not
  have tunnels like the Magic Kingdom does.

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• Unless the person is a Cast Member or on the tour
  they are not allowed in.

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Magic Kingdom Construction
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Construction of Space Mountain
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Construction of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
station
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Spaceship Earth Construction Photos
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Spaceship Earth Construction Photos
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Spaceship Earth Construction Photos
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Geodesic Domes

• A geodesic dome is an almost spherical structure
  based on a network of struts arranged on great
  circles (geodesics) lying approximately on the
  surface of a sphere.

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Geodesic Domes

• The geodesics intersect to form triangular
  elements that have local triangular rigidity and
  yet also distribute the stress across the entire
  structure.

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Geodesic Domes

• It is the only man-made structure that gets
  proportionally stronger as it increases in size.

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Geodesic Domes

• When completed to form a full sphere, it is known
  as a geodesic sphere.

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Geodesic Domes
The Montreal Biosphère, formely the American
Pavilion of Expo 67, by R. Buckminster Fuller
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Geodesic Domes

• The first dome that could be called "geodesic" in
  every respect was designed just after WWI by
  Walter Bauersfeld, chief engineer of the Carl
  Zeiss optical company, for a planetarium to house
  his new planetarium projector.

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Geodesic Domes

• The dome was patented, and constructed on the
  roof of the Zeiss plant in Germany and opened to
  the public in 1922.

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Geodesic Domes

• Some thirty years later R. Buckminster Fuller
  apparently came up with the idea independently
  and named the dome "geodesic."

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Geodesic Domes

• Although Fuller cannot be said to be the
  inventor, he exploited and developed the idea,
  receiving a U.S. patent.

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Geodesic Domes

• The geodesic dome appealed to Fuller because it
  was extremely strong for its weight, its
  "omnitriangulated" surface provided an inherently
  stable structure, and because a sphere encloses
  the greatest volume for the least surface area.
  Fuller had hopes that the geodesic dome would
  help address the postwar housing crisis.

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Geodesic Domes

• From an engineering perspective geodesic domes
  are far superior to traditional, right-angle
  post-and-beam constructions. Traditional
  constructions are a far less efficient use of
  materials, are far heavier, are less stable, and
  rely on gravity to stand up.

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Geodesic Domes

• However, there are also some notable drawbacks to
  geodesic constructions as well. Although
  extremely strong, domes react to external
  stresses in ways that confound traditional
  engineering.

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Geodesic Domes

• Some structures will retain their shape and
  contract evenly when stressed on the outside, and
  some don't.

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Geodesic Domes

• For example, a dome built at Princeton, New
  Jersey was hit by a snowplow. The stress was
  transmitted through the structure, and popped out
  struts on the opposite side.

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Geodesic Domes

• The dome was successfully adopted for specialized
  industrial use, such as the 1958 Union Tank Car
  Company dome near Baton Rouge, Louisiana and
  specialty buildings like the Henry Kaiser dome,
  auditoriums, weather observatories, and storage
  facilities.

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Geodesic Domes

• The dome was introduced to a wider audience at
  Expo '67 the Montreal, Canada World's Fair as
  part of the American Pavilion.

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Geodesic Domes

• A dome was constructed at the South Pole in 1975
  where its resistance to snow and wind loads is
  important.

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Geodesic Domes

• Click here for a site which details how to build
  a geodesic dome.
• http//www.islandnet.com/yesmag/projects/geodesic
  BW.html

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Spaceship Earth

• Geometrically, Spaceship Earth is a pentakis
  dodecahedron.