World’s FairsFound, not built?
Paris 1889Investigate

Investigate · Paris 1889

Exposition Universelle de 1889. La Galerie des Machines - btv1b11600096z

Exposition Universelle de 1889. La Galerie des Machines - btv1b11600096z
1 clue in this photo

1Impossible timeline

A moving gallery over a vast iron span

Inside the Galerie, a raised travelling gallery rides above a vast iron span. The record says the hall was reused in 1900 and demolished in 1910.

The questionWhy build a hall this strong only to take it down two decades later?

Photo: Neurdein frères (Photographes). Photographe · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Paris 1889Case file

Same kind of clue, elsewhere

#7Impossible timeline · Chicago 1893The iron arches, with three people in sightWhy is a 'construction' photo dated during the fair, and how was a span like this put up in the time recorded?Impossible timeline · London 18511,850 feet of iron and glass in about nine monthsHow many men, carts and horses would it take to cast, haul and raise thousands of matching iron parts that quickly, and where are the photos of that work?Impossible timeline · Philadelphia 1876The 1,880-foot Main BuildingWith horses and horsecars as the heavy transport, how was this length of iron and glass raised in two years?Impossible timeline · Atlanta 1895A city of palaces in a recovering townWhere are the quarry and mill records for the fair's buildings?Impossible timeline · Nashville 1897A whole classical town in a bird's-eye viewHow was a site this size built, and a full-size Parthenon cast, within about a year?Impossible timeline · Omaha 1898A Chicago-scale court in a prairie cityHow did a city that size supply the crews, materials and horses for a court like this?

All clues others missed →