World’s Fairs and Expositions have been happening for over 150 years. They have been located in many different cities and the structures are usually built with the intention of being temporary. In spite of that, there are a number of structures that have remained for many times longer than their original designers intended. Here are a few of them that you may just want to visit.
Probably the oldest extant structure that was built for a World’s Fair or Exposition is the Eiffel Tower which was constructed in 1889 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The International Exposition of Paris lasted for 180 days and welcomed over 32 million people. It was certainly the first of its kind to achieve this scope of influence and the Eiffel Tower was the showpiece of the exhibition. Imagine how impressive it was over 100 years ago before there were buildings as tall as those we have today. And yet, there is hardly a person who would visit Paris in 2016 and not see and be impressed by the marvelous building designed by Gustav Eiffel.
The Parthenon in Nashville was built for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition in 1897. It was originally supposed to open in 1896 which was the actual 100th anniversary but it was a great success welcoming almost 2 million visitors in the six months it was open. The Parthenon was the Fine Arts Building at the exposition and proved to be one of the most popular. So popular in fact that it was not torn down with the rest of the temporary buildings. That is not to say that the gorgeous building of today is totally original, it isn’t. It had to undergo a massive rebuild in order to make it permanent. Any visitor to Nashville will agree, it is amazing. So amazing in fact that when the Greek Government was going to work on the original, they used the Nashville version to help them, pretty impressive for a temporary building.
One of Brussels Belgium’s most iconic sights is the Atomium. It was built for the 1958 World’s Fair and was the main building of the fair. Five of the spheres on the structure are open to the public and offer a permanent exhibit, temporary exhibit space, and also some wonderful views. No visit to Brussels is complete without at least having your picture taken in front of this unusual structure. It was built in an era where atomic energy had been used to end a war and ways were being looked at for peaceful use of atomic energy.
These are just three of the many interesting buildings that have been built for World’s Fairs. A few others include the Vasco da Gama Tower in Lisbon, Portugal, The Unisphere in Flushing Meadow, N.Y., The Space Needle in Seattle, Wash., The Palace of Fine Arts in Chicago, and the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio, Texas.
As these all indicate, being the location of a World’s Fair can mean that a tourist attraction will be left behind for visitors to enjoy for years to come.
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