Voice of nature

As any person interested in Disney, and specifically Walt Disney World, I am often asked the question of which park is my favorite. The honest, though eye-roll worthy, answer is that I do not have a favorite park. The four themes around which the parks are built are so varied that only the monumental storytelling element told throughout each park could even scarcely begin to be used as a point of comparison.That said, I often feel like the youngest of the four parks, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, is put down, or snickered at, for its lack of value and entertainment. To help stem this tide, here are so facts and figures relating to the work that went into the opening of the park, as well as a few construction photos thrown in for good measure. All of these figures are from opening day and do not include additions, such as Expedition Everest or the Theater in the Wild.Square feet of rockwork: 1,000,000
Weight of doors in elephant barn, in pounds: 20,000
Cubic feet of dirt moved on site: 4,400,000Miles of retaining wall: 6.5
Miles of electrical conduit: 600
Plants installed, site wide: 4,000,000 plusShrubs along the African Safari: 771,687
Weight of Tree of Life, in pounds: 4,000,000
Imagineering-produced construction drawings for Disney’s Animal Kingdom park: 7,000