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Walt Disney World is twice the size of Manhattan. Its parks - the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT Center, Disney-MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom - cover 43 square miles. Every year 32 million people visit them, drink half a billion Cokes, eat five million hot dogs, snap four percent of all America's amateur photographs. Every day the 45,000 Vacation Kingdom 'cast members' dispense good will and pixie dust, plant over 5,000 bedding plants and take in an average of 100 pairs of sunglasses at the Lost and Found. In a year they sell enough Mouse Ear hats to cover the head of every man, woman and child in Manchester.

Thirty years ago this land was a swamp. Three-quarters of it was under water during the summer. The site was bought in secret, designated the Reedy Creek Improvement District and declared an autonomous, self-governing community. It became for a time the world's biggest construction project. Fifty-five miles of canals were dug and landscaped to resemble natural springs. Two new lakes were dredged. Millions of cubic yards of fill were moved to raise the flat land by 14 feet, making room for extensive subterranean 'utilidor' service tunnels under the Magic Kingdom. Florida's two highest peaks, Big Thunder and Space Mountain, soared above the scrub. In less than four years the central Florida bog was transformed into a place of pilgrimage. The most visited tourist destination on earth.

I step onto Main Street USA, the quintessence of mythical America. It's just 9.00 a.m. and the park is full of people. An orderly queue of pram-pushing parents waits in its dependable shade to meet Donald Duck. Across the crowded square is Captain Hook. Snow White blows me a kiss and I wave back. She's like a China doll with bon-bon sleeves and plucked eyebrows, wholly artificial except for the pale blonde hairs on her arms. A stupid frou-frou bow in her black wig makes her look like a primped pedigree puppy.

A child's handful of balloons escapes, as they must do every hour on the hour, and floats away over the Magic Kingdom.

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