To step through the turnstiles and under the train station to enter Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom theme park is to be transported back in time by nearly one hundred years. Main Street USA, the first of The Magic Kingdom's seven themed "lands", is the Disney version of a small American town at the turn of the last century (and not unlike Marceline, Missouri -- the town where Walt Disney grew up in that era.) Here bands still play in the town square, the clip-clop of a horse drawn trolley may still sometimes be heard, and a real barbershop quartet hangs out by the barber shop.
The attention to detail in the theming is incredible -- each individual building, although most are really just a part of one of several larger buildings, has its own character and style -- inside as well as out. It really seems to be a town with a life of its own, and you expect to see a resident stick their head out of a window (that is really just a false front) any second. The names in the "advertising" on the second story windows belong to real people, by the way, and honor various past Disney executives and imagineers.
Attractions
The Walt Disney World Railroad
Walt Disney loved trains, so it's not surprising that he made sure his parks had them. In fact, with the train station being located directly over the entrance, the effect is as if every visitor to Main Street USA had just arrived here by railroad. These are real steam trains, too -- as you can feel from that characteristic whine of a real steam whistle and the chugging of the old fashioned live steam pistons. Aside from being a pleasant one and a half mile ride the train is also good for practical transportation -- the other stations are at Frontierland and Mickey's Toontown Fair. While you're in the station, check out the few coin-op machines now in the waiting room that survived the Penny Arcade's closing.
Main Street Vehicles
The Horse Drawn Trolley and Main Street Fire Engine or other vintage vehicles are sometimes available for rides from one end of the street to the other. See displays about horses and early transportation at the Car Barn.