Post by Darlene Septelka, FDBIA

It's 1876 - 55 countries arriving, 154,273 wooden crates. 57 million pounds of freight. No airplanes, trucks, forklifts, or computers — and a fixed opening day. Before visitors could tour the world in Philadelphia, the world had to get there: received, unloaded, cleared through customs, hauled, placed, and opened for business. With rail, rollers, jacks, and muscle. The 1876 Centennial was not only America's first world's fair. It was a temporary international city, built on American ground by foreign commissions, craftsmen, exhibitors, merchants, and concessionaires who crossed oceans to take part. Their work reached Philadelphia as freight: foundations, timber, packing crates, display cases, gardens, bazaars, and national pavilions sent in pieces through the winter. The first Swedish timbers arrived in December 1875. The last Siamese crate arrived in October 1876 — five months after opening day. Inside the great halls, nations displayed machinery, manufactured goods, raw materials, art, and craft. Roughly three-fifths of the Main Building floor belonged to other nations. Outside, the world served coffee, meals, and souvenirs to visitors walking through a city that existed for six months. 📗 Chapter 8c, Part One — The International City — follows that side of the Centennial: the invitation that was nearly botched in Washington, the freight operation that moved the world's goods to Fairmount Park, the courts inside the Main Building, the nine foreign government buildings, and the cafés where an ordinary American came face to face with the wider world for the price of a cup of coffee. ⬇️ Click Below. 🔗 Full chapter linked below in the comment. 📙 Next in the Centennial Series: Part Two — The Commerce City, where private American companies built their own structures to demonstrate and sell. Release June 12. #Construction #ProjectManagement #ConstructionIndustry #AmericanHistory #IndustrialHistory #1876CentennialSeries #America250 #ConstructionHistory #EngineeringHistory