Investigate · Philadelphia 1876

Grand United States centennial exhibition 1876- main building, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia LCCN2001702133

2 clues in this photo

1Impossible timeline

The 1,880-foot Main Building

The lithograph shows a hall that runs out of the frame, with corner towers and flagged pavilions, while horsecars and carriages crowd the avenue in front. The record gives about 1,880 ft and roughly two years to build.

The questionWith horses and horsecars as the heavy transport, how was this length of iron and glass raised in two years?

2Other details

Sold and dismantled by 1881

The record says the Main Building was sold and dismantled by 1881, only five years after the opening shown here.

The questionWho bought it, where did the iron go, and why take down a hall this size?

Photo: Popular Graphic Arts · Public domain · via Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons

Philadelphia 1876 Case 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 · Paris 1889A moving gallery over a vast iron spanWhy build a hall this strong only to take it down two decades later?

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 →