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
Hurricane Matthew its 45-year history, the Walt Disney World Resort closes. Its theme parks are Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom water parks are Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon, and Disney Springs were closed at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on October 6 and did not open on October 7. This was the first time since 2004 that the parks have closed, all instances due to hurricanes. Other Orlando-area theme parks, including Universal Orlando resort and SeaWorld Orlando, also closed. The Southeastern Conference football game between LSU and Florida, scheduled for October 8 in Gainesville, was cancelled, while the