Wow, I am dumbstruck by this…. the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, in coordination with UCLA’s Urban Simulation Team has digitally recreated the World’s Fair of 1893 and made a virtual tour out of it. Also known as the Columbian Exposition it’s featuring this weekend only. Participants will be able to take a virtual hot air balloon ride and a drift along in a gondola to tour the grounds of the Expo just as the original fair-goers did. (Click here for a link to the video of the gondola ride, it starts off with shaky embedded source images but after about 30 seconds smooths out… warning: wmv format. See more videos here.)fine arts building

The Columbian Expo was an amazing feat, the least of which was bringing it to Chicago versus other competing cities. In fact, the nickname of “the Windy City” was borne of the affair, not because of the weather, but because of the boasts of the Chicago politicians and architects who wanted the expo in Chi-town. I won’t recall all of the reasons here that this was such an amazing event, but I will list a few details:

  • They built the expo on over 630 acres of drained swampland and featured over 200 buildings made in a classical architecture style. In many ways, this was a culmination and first major triumph for truly American arts and architecture and projected both ideals to the world stage.
  • Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla lit the entire fairgrounds with streetlights and lamps via alternating current, the first time this technology was exhibited to the public.
  • The first Ferris Wheel at 264 feet tall was built by George Ferris for the fair to rival Paris’ Eiffel Tower.
  • For more info, check out wikipedia’s great entry on it… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition

In another life, when I sold a few items on ebay, some of the coolest items that passed through my hands were memorabilia from that fair.

The story behind the Columbian Exposition and the “White City” that was built on Chicago’s near south side for the event is fascinating. One of the best books imho to check out that really seems to capture all of the wheeling and dealing, disagreements between the titanic egos of the architects and politicians that were involved (oh and the serial killer who marred the memory of the fair forever), is Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson. Really, read this book, it’s amazing. And if you live in Chicago, go see this exhibit, it’s only around for this weekend!

Court of Honor and Grand BasinFrom the Chicago Trib’s article on it:

The “virtual” digital version of the legendary World’s Fair will allow a limited number of visitors to the Museum of Science and Industry this weekend to glide in electric boats along canals past the fair’s classical pavilions or take in the monumental scale of the ornate buildings while strolling on the sidewalks. They can even soar 1,492 feet in a hot-air balloon to look down on the White City.

Sorry to get all history dork on y’all, but goddam, I wish I was in Chicago…