History of Florida to use I-75, and settled along the west coast of Florida. Florida's first theme parks were developed in the 1930s and included Cypress Gardens (1936) near Winter Haven, and Marineland (1938) near St. Augustine. Disney selected Orlando over several other sites for an updated and expanded version of their Disneyland Park in California. In 1971, the Magic Kingdom, the first component of the resort, opened and became Florida's best-known attraction, attracting tens of millions of visitors a year. It stimulated the development of other attractions, as well as large tracts of housing and related businesses. The Orlando area became an
Magic Kingdom never printed without the Walt Disney World prefix. This purpose was to differentiate between the park and Disneyland in California, which was and is also commonly referred to as the Magic Kingdom. In 1994, to differentiate it from Disneyland, the park was officially renamed Magic Kingdom Park, but is still known as Magic Kingdom or sometimes The Magic Kingdom. Like all Disney theme parks, the official name of the park does not start with an article ("the"), though it is commonly referred to that way; however, a sign on the railroad station at the front of the park reads "Magic