In 1959, Walt Disney Productions began looking for land for a second park to supplement Disneyland, which had opened in Anaheim, California in 1955. Market surveys revealed that only 2% of Disneyland's visitors came from east of the Mississippi River, where 75% of the population of the United States lived. Additionally, Walt Disney disliked the businesses that had sprung up around Disneyland and wanted control of a much larger area of land for the new project.^[1]

Walt Disney flew to Orlando site (one of many) on November 22, 1963. He had previously flown over Sanford, Florida and approached the city council to allow him to build Disney World there, but was denied. Seeing the well-developed network of roads, including the planned Interstate 4 and Florida's Turnpike, with McCoy Air Force Base (later Orlando International Airport) to the east, he immediately fell in love with the site.^{[citation needed]} When later asked why he chose it, he said, "the freeway routes, they bisect here."^{[citation needed]} Disney focused most of his attention on the "Florida Project" where he purchased land for Disney World, both before and after his participation at the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair, but he died on December 15, 1966, and never saw his vision complete.

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