After the striking blue-and-white facility was canceled in the early 1970s, Walt Disney World got an offer of help from a highly unusual source.

In the 1970s, Disney tried to built The Venetian Resort. In the 1990s, Disney tried to build the Grande Venezia Resort. Both times, it scrapped the idea.

You won’t find it for sale, because it gets in the way of Disney’s remarkable clean-up operations.

Disney went to all that effort to make Epcot and the surrounding hotels immersive, and then came up with the Swan and Dolphin. Why?

Announced in 1976, long before Epcot had been built, the ride would have taken guests on a Small World-style journey through Germany and the Swiss Alps.

Among the guests at the 1975 unveiling of Walt Disney World’s Space Mountain were a host of astronauts, including one who had walked on the moon.

Scheduled to open in 1974, the complex would have sat on the site now occupied by the Grand Floridian.

Most amusement parks are glorified roadside attractions. Walt Disney World is more like a city.

The match seems made in heaven. And yet, if any of Disney’s original choices had said “yes,” it could all have been quite different.

Central Florida has more lightning than any other part of the United States. And Disney is on it.

In its 57 years, the attraction has operated in New York, California, and Florida, and is still spinning its way into the history books.

1.6 million pairs of sunglasses. Hats, cell phones, and autograph books. A prosthetic leg, a wig, and a glass eye. What a collection.