Major structures remaining from the Exposition include the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the Pont Alexandre III, the Gare d’Orsay railroad station (now the Musée d’Orsay) and two original entrances of Paris Métro stations by Hector Guimard.
Countries from around the world were invited by France to showcase their achievements and cultures. Of the fifty-six countries invited to participate, forty accepted, plus an additional number of colonies and protectorates of France, the Netherlands, Britain, and Portugal. The United States, Germany, China, Siam, Japan, Mexico, Russia, and the South African Republic all had pavilions.
The Exposition buildings were meant to be temporary; they were built on iron frames covered with plaster and staff, a kind of inexpensive artificial stone. Many of the buildings were unfinished when the Exposition opened, and most were demolished immediately after it closed.
The Exposition buildings were meant to be temporary; they were built on iron frames covered with plaster and staff, a kind of inexpensive artificial stone. Many of the buildings were unfinished when the Exposition opened, and most were demolished immediately after it closed.
Twenty-one of the thirty-three official pavilions were devoted to technology and the sciences. Among the most popular was the Palace of Optics, whose main attractions included the Great Paris Exposition Telescope, which enlarged the image of the moon ten thousand times. The image was projected on a screen 144 square meters in size, in a hall which seated two thousand visitors. This telescope was the largest refracting telescope at that time. The optical tube assembly was 60 meters long and 1.5 meters in diameter and was fixed in place due to its mass. Light from the sky was sent into the tube by a movable 2-meter mirror.
An even more ambitious experiment in motion pictures was the Cinéorama of Raoul Grimoin Sanson, which simulated a voyage in a balloon. The film, projected on a circular screen 93 meters in circumference by ten synchronized projectors, depicted a landscape passing below. The spectators sat in the center above the projectors, in what resembled the basket suspended beneath a large balloon.
The Grande Roue de Chicago was a very popular attraction. It was a gigantic Ferris wheel 110 meters high, which took its name from a similar wheel created by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It and could carry 1600 passengers in its forty cars in a single voyage. The cost of a ride was one franc for a second-class car, and two francs for a more spacious first-class car. Despite the high price, passengers often had to wait an hour for a place.
Fifty-six countries were invited to have pavilions at the Exposition, and forty accepted. The Rue des Nations was created along the banks of the Seine between the esplanade of Les Invalides and the Champ de Mars for the pavilions of the larger countries. Each country paid for its own pavilion. The pavilions were all temporary, made of plaster and staff on a metal frame. Nearly all were designed in the national architecture of each country, often imitating famous national monuments, The Russian pavilion was inspired by the towers of the Kremlin. The Pavilion of Turkey was one of the largest, covering 4000 square meters on the rue des Nations. It was designed by a French architect, Dubuisson, and was a mixture of copies of Islamic architecture from mosques in Istanbul and elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire. The British Royalty pavilion, one of the largest, consisted of a mock-Jacobean mansion decorated with pictures and furniture, constructed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. It was largely used for receptions for important visitors to the Exposition.
Many international congresses and other events were held in Paris in 1900 within the framework of the Exposition. A large area within the Bois de Vincennes was set aside for sporting events, which included, among others, many of the events of the 1900 Summer Olympics, the second time the games were held, and the first time they were held outside of Greece. 997 competitors took part in nineteen different sports, including women competing for the first time. A number of events were held for the first and only time in Olympic history, including automobile and motorcycle racing, ballooning, cricket, croquet, a two-hundred-meter swimming obstacle race, and underwater swimming. France provided 72% of all athletes (720 of the 997) and won the most gold, silver and bronze medal placings. U.S. athletes won the second largest number, with just seventy-five of the 997 athletes. The pigeon race was won by a bird which flew from Paris to its home in Lyon in four and a half hours. The Free balloon competition race was won by a balloon which traveled 1925 kilometers from Paris to Russia in 35 hours and 45 minutes.
Paris, Exposition, Eiffel, Tower, France, Ferris, Wheel, 1900