Structural beauties of the Panama-Pacific Exposition

1 clue in this photo

1Impossible timeline · whole photo

Nine years after the fire

A 1914 collage titled 'Structural beauties' shows finished arcades, courts and towers a year before the opening. The record sets this nine years after the 1906 earthquake and fire.

The questionWhere did the workers and materials come from?

Photo: Internet Archive Book Images · No restrictions · via Wikimedia Commons

San Francisco 1915 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 · 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 · 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?

All clues others missed →