World’s Fairs claim many firsts, including the first Ferris
wheel, the ice cream cone, the first hot dog, and the first iced
tea (what would life be like without that?) but most of the
physical buildings are removed once the crowds leave town. Here
are some tourist sites that are legacies of World’s Fairs,
reminding us of an age when seeing new inventions and foreign
culture took more than a trip to the internet. Eiffel Tower
(Paris – 1889) The Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Exposition
Universalle in Paris as a temporary structure, is the most
famous of the buildings left behind by World’s Fairs. It was
built to be dismantled twenty years after the expo, but it
turned out to be a pretty swell radio tower. Mocked as an
eyesore in its early days, it is now the symbol of the City of
Light. Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago, Illinois, USA –
1893) The Ferris Wheel was built for the 1893 World Columbian
Exposition in Chicago, but it’s long gone (the current one at
Navy Pier is a replica). However, another g