Theme Parks Through the Years from earth observations
This interactive app explores the evolution of American theme parks through the years from aerial imageries. From these images, we witness new parks being constructed, old parks being demolished and new rides being installed. Here are some parks to see and explore yourself. Fly to the corresponding park using the dropdown menu at the lower right-hand corner. The app may not display properly on narrow phone screens.
At Disneys California Adventure Park, you can see the massive overhaul from 2007 to 2012. You can see the construction of Buena Vista Street, and the transformation from a car park to Cars Land. Across from the park, at Disneyland, you can see the re-routing of Rivers of America and construction of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge expansion.
At Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, you can see the expansion of Fantasyland. Also at Walt Disney World over Disneys Animal Kingdom, you can see the construction of Pandora, World of Avatar.
Staying within the Orlando area, at Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventures, you can see the birth of Hogwarts Castle, Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley.
At Legoland California and Universals Volcano Bay, you can see the construction of brand new water parks.
At Universal Studios Hollywood, you can see the rise of the Hogwarts Castle and the Transformers ride.
Finally, you may explore parks that have been closed and left abandoned. This includes Freestyle Music Park (aka Hard Rock Park), which opened for less than a year in 2008. You can see the construction of the park leading up to 2008 and the demolition of the park since. Also take a look at Six Flags New Orleans, which was left abandoned due to flood damages during Hurricane Katrina.
Images are taken from the National Agriculture Imagery Program. Refer to their website for images availability. NAIP only covers the United States, unfortunately!