1938: New York World's Fair

The New York World's Fair, held from April 30 to Oct. 31, 1939, on Flushing Meadow, New York, represents a $150,000,000 spectacle of human achievements in building the World of Tomorrow. Its purpose is to promote trade and industry throughout the world, stimulate international friendships and dramatically to emphasize the interrelationship of all men's interests, while with this theme and purpose it commemorates the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Washington's inauguration as first President of the United States.

The site of this giant pageant is a 1,216½-acre area on Flushing Bay, excavated, planted, and landscaped from swampland. The leveling and construction of the land was launched in the fall of 1935. The central theme structures of the Fair are: the Trylon, a three-sided steel spire rising to a height of 700 feet and measuring 68 feet on each side of the base, and, in front of it, the Perisphere, a hollow, eighteen-story globe, 200 feet in diameter and weighing 9,300,000 pounds. The Perisphere contains within it a panoramic kaleidoscope of the World of Tomorrow. The Trylon is used as a broadcasting station tower. A spiral ramp called a helicline encircles the pool beneath each form and leads up to a platform in the Trylon and from there crosses a span to the Perisphere.

From this Theme Center, which has become the trademark and the symbol of the Fair, three general areas and fourteen major zones radiate to the four points of the compass: the great Exhibit Area presented by the Fair itself and private industry; the Government Area which includes the $3,000,000 United States Federal Building with its two 150-foot towers, the foreign and international pavilions, and the varied displays of the states and possessions of the Union; and the 280-acre Amusement Area which encircles Meadow Lake. Within the scope of these comprehensive general areas are the fourteen zones into which the varied and complex exhibit sections have been divided. These zones are termed the Government Zone, the Zones of Production, of Transportation, of Communication, of Distribution, of Business Systems, of Shelter, of Clothing and Cosmetics, of Sustenance, of Health and Public Welfare, of Education, of Recreation, of Arts and of Religion.

The plan of the exhibitions has been worked out in an effort to obtain the highest degree of order and accessibility. East of the Theme Center lies Constitution Mall, the main esplanade and the chief axis of the display area. Upon this central courtway are landscaped cascades, buildings with colored mosaics, pools, and fountains, sculptured groups, and, facing the Theme Center from Washington Square, the sixty-five foot statue of George Washington by James Earle Fraser followed by the sculptured figures of the four Freedoms by Leo Friedlander, representing Freedom of the Press, of Speech, of Religion, and of Assembly. Behind the Freedoms are Paul Manship's The Moods of Time and a 50-foot sundial. On either side, one thousand full-grown trees have been planted along the branching thoroughfares. The Mall proper terminates at a large lagoon, 700 feet long and 400 feet wide, which links the exhibit area to the government and foreign zones. Over this lagoon are staged great spectacles of fireworks composed of skyrockets, jets of water, colored floodlights and bursts of flame, and day and night floodlights play over the various sections of the exhibits on Rainbow Avenue, coloring the buildings on the right of the Theme Center blue and those on the left yellow with the central portions possessing all hues in between.

North of the Theme Center, on the Avenue of Patriots, the Court of Communications, Park Row and Petticoat Lane, are situated the Science and Education Display buildings, the Communications building, and the Cosmetics and Textile buildings, which extend eastward to Bowling Green and the five-acre model 'Town of Tomorrow.' South of the Theme Center lie the Avenue of the Pioneers, the Court of Power, the Plaza of Light, Commerce Circle, and the Avenue of Labor on which are situated the Electrical and Distribution buildings with their scientific displays, and further east the Chemicals and Plastics buildings, which extend to Lincoln Square and finally to the Court of the States where the buildings and displays of forty states and territories of the Union are represented. South of the Plaza of Light, the Empire State Bridge crosses to the New York State Amphitheater on Meadow Lake where great marine exhibitions take place. On the eastern side of the Amphitheater stands the Music Hall which seats an audience of 2,500 spectators, and behind it the Amusement Area, while on the western side lie the Terrace Club and the Army and Navy buildings stretching southwest along the lakefront.

Finally, west of the Theme Center, on City Hall Square, stands the New York City Building, to be one of the permanent municipal structures of the Fair. The Business Systems building and the Pharmacy building flank the Square, and behind the New York City Building lie the Courts of Railways and Ships and the Avenue of Transportation on which the motor, aviation, and marine buildings are located.

Among the outstanding attractions featured in these various zones and areas of the Fair are the Model Town of Tomorrow, designed for a population of 3,500 inhabitants, constructed with a new architectural treatment, and complete with homes, home furnishings, roads, a playground and an art center; the two painting exhibits, one of modern American paintings, the other of old masters; the Shakespeare Theater devoted entirely to Shakespeare's plays; the 280-acre amusement zone, comprizing novelties, shows, burlesque bullfights, dancing, and entertainments; a complete miniature railroad; the air display of the latest type clipper and special aeronautical exhibits; the replica of Independence Hall in Philadelphia erected by the State of Pennsylvania; the foreign restaurants where exclusively native food is served; and the Children's World where guests of the Fair may safely leave their children for an instructive afternoon.

Over sixty foreign nations, investing $25,000,000 in buildings, are represented in the various exhibitions and displays of the Fair, and an attendance of 60,000,000 spectators is expected to have witnessed this giant Exposition before its close. At the end of the Fair, the landscaped grounds and municipal buildings and amphitheater will be turned into a permanent City Park.