Written by Chen Yijia

Pictures by courtesy of Chen Yijia

Name: New York World's Fair

Time: April 30 to October 31, 1939

May 11 to October 27, 1940

Theme: Building the World of Tomorrow

Site Area: 500 Hectare

Number of Nations Taking Part: 64

1939 meant a year of war in Europe and Asia, but it was also a year when the New York World's Fair opened in the new world. With 64 nations taking part for two consecutive years, The Fair was a peak in the history of world's fairs in its scale and achievements.

A New World in the New World

As a deluxe present for the 150th anniversary of the investiture of George Washington as the first president of the States, the New York World's Fair of 1939 not only signified a historical festival of importance to America, but also extended its extraordinary implications into all western civilization. Of course, the Fair's tenet was not simply limited to this. The Theme-Establishing Committee expressed its idea: "New York World's Fair is a feast for the world, a carnival for the exhibition of everything that contributes to the advancement of the mankind.”And so the theme of the New York World's Fair was born-"Building the World of Tomorrow".

During the Fair, a multitude of new inventions and technologies were displayed, among which the tape recorder, television, the television camera, nylon and plastic made their debut to the world. This was what the Fair wanted to convey to the visitors as well as the world - it is with these materials, ideology and energy that the world runs; they are the most advanced technologies of the time, the tools with which we will live and build the future. Everyone could be a builder and decider, who can choose a tool and use it to build a better world of tomorrow.

Determination that Moves Mountains and Fills the Sea

Planners found that a site that was big enough and accessible enough for the Fair was not readily available in New York City. So they advanced their perspective toward the Fair into an opportunity for long-term city planning, whose siting strategy went beyond the time span of the Fair. Corona Park of Queens Borough was a swampland and dump in the early part of the century. The reclamation of this ground for New York World's Fair had been the greatest accomplishment of its kind in the history of the eastern United States. Just as the legendary Yugong moved a mountain and the mythical Jingwei filled a sea in Chinese fables, New Yorkers demonstrated their determination so firm that they carried away hills, and with about six million cubic yards of soda ash, solidified the swamp. Then workers dumped thousands upon thousands of earth and leveled the ground, turning the swamp and dump into an open and smooth ground surface for the Fair. Through the years after the Fair, this ground has thoroughly remolded itself through regular development into the second largest park in New York.

The Fair was the fruit of numerous people's dreams, experience and courage. Designers, architects and engineers had fanned the spark of inspiration and imagination into real architecture for the world's appreciation. The main building of the Fair, The Trylon and Perisphere, was one of the structures that concentrated sweat and toil. With a strong sense of modernity in its sculpting, this building became the symbol of the New York World's Fair, constantly appearing as the emblem of the Fair, and in all its posters. However, the novelty of its design had unprecedentedly challenged the architects who built it. They pooled every bit of their wisdom and deliberation into solving the engineering roadblocks faced with its design and construction, and often hundreds of solutions would be put forward for further selection, to the conquering of a particular problem. And they ultimately created this miraculous wonder.