Sky Ride
History
Closeup of inland tower, showing 200 ft landing and observation deck at top. A “rocket car” is visible at right
The Century of Progress Exposition committee sought an exciting signature attraction, one that would be remembered like the Eiffel Tower from the 1889 Paris World’s Fair or the Ferris wheel of the 1893 Chacago World’s Fair. One under consideration was called the Tower of Water and Light. It was to be a 250-tall underwritten by Montgomery Ward with elevators to observation platforms and water flowing down the outside. When the Montgomery Ward company backed out of its offer to finance the tower, the commission considered the Sky Ride.
The Sky Ride, an idea suggested by an engineer named William L. Hamilton, would span the grounds and be relatively cheap to build. The ride was built in the span of 6 months prior to the fair’s opening, by a consortium of 5 companies: Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, Inland Steel, John Roebling and Sons, Mississippi Valley Structural Steel and Otis Elevator at a cost of about 1,000,000 USD.
The ride had a capacity of 5,000 people per hour. It was reported that the attraction had 2,616,389 riders in 1933 and a total of about 4.5 million during the course of the fair. At the time of construction the span between towers was one of the longest in the world, allegedly exceeded in span only by the George Washington Bridge, and the towers were higher than any of the skyscrapers then extant in Chicago. It was reported that it contained 2,000 tons of steel, 100 miles (160 km) of cabling and that the cableway had a breaking strength of 220,000 pounds per square inch.
The Sky Ride was demolished at the conclusion of the fair. The west tower was brought down using 120 pounds of dynamite. The east tower was toppled on August 29, 1935 using 1,500 pounds of thermite charges to melt ten-foot sections near the bottom of two of the legs. When the thermite was fired, the two legs collapsed and the tower fell on its side.
Panorama, showing Sky Ride to the left
Design
The Sky Ride consisted of two towers, each 628 feet (191 m) high, spaced 1,850 feet (560 m) apart. Each tower had 4 elevators with a 30 person capacity. Fair goers could take a trip across from one tower to the other at the 200-foot (61 m) level, or take the elevator farther up to the observation decks at the top of the tower. There were two decks per tower and Bausch and Lomb supplied the 12 coin-operated telescopes on the tower observation decks. If they chose to take a trip across, they rode in one of 12 double-decked “rocket cars” carried across from one tower to the other. Each car emitted steam intended to resemble a “tail” or rocket exhaust, as it traveled across the wires. At night, lights were focused on the cars as they traveled between the towers, and lights were also attached to the bottom of the elevators.
The transporter bridge, a very rare type of bridge, is more common in Europe. In the United States, only two transporter bridges were ever built: the Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth, Minnesota in 1905, and the Sky Ride. Due to capacity constraints, the Duluth bridge was converted from a transporter bridge to a more conventional vertical lift bridge with a raisable through truss span in 1930. Thus, the count of transporter bridges existing at a given time in the US never exceeded 1, and after November 1934, stands at zero again.
Brochure
The following brochure text gives a feel for the breathless prose of the day.
Two towers stand like giant sentinels, 1,850 feet (560 m) apart, seeming to guard the Hall of Science on the Mainland, and the Hall of Social Science across the Lagoonupport of the spectacular Sky-Ride, great thrill feature of A Century of Progress. Back in 1893, it was the monster Ferris Wheel that everybody talked about, and everybody rode. Today, striking example of the progress of science even in thrill makers, is this suspension bridge principle applied to an entertainment featurend perhaps the near solution of some problems of overhead transportation.
They are higher than any building in Chicago, these two strong steel towers, imbedded in cement. Six hundred and twenty-eight feet they rise into the skies, with observation floors atop them. On a 200-foot (61 m) level the rocket cars offer you a beautiful and, mayhap, thrilling ride across the lagoon.
See also
Aerial tramway
Transporter bridge
Notes
^ Lohr, Lenox Riley (1952). Fair Management: The Story of A Century of Progress Exposition. Chicago: Cuneo Press. pp. 172173. http://www.archive.org/details/fairmanagement00lohrrich. Retrieved November 15, 2009.
^ a b Findling 1994, p. 67.
^ Windsor, H. H., Jr. (August 1935). “Engineers Topple Skyride Inches from Mark” (Google books). Popular Mechanics (Chicago: Popular Mechanics Co.) 64 (2): 167. ISSN 0032-4558. http://books.google.com/books?id=tt4DAAAAMBAJ. Retrieved November 14, 2009.
^ Findling 1994, p. 150.
^ Windsor, H. H., Jr. (November 1935). “Skyride Tower Felled by Melting Steel Legs” (Google books). Popular Mechanics (Chicago: Popular Mechanics Co.) 64 (5): 657. ISSN 0032-4558. http://books.google.com/books?id=xd0DAAAAMBAJ. Retrieved November 13, 2009.
^ Brochure text is taken from the Official Guide Book Of The Fair, 1933, Published by A Century Of Progress, Sourced from this Geocities page. With the demise of Geocities, reference the Internet Archive Aug 13, 2001 version.
References
Blsche, Jochen. “Schwebefhren Gestern [Ferries of Yesterdsay]” (in German). Die Welt der Schwebefhren (The World of Aerial Ferries). http://www.niederelbe.de/FAEHRE/chicago.htm.
Findling, John E. (1994) (Google books). Chicago’s great world’s fairs. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719036309. http://books.google.com/books?id=HXy7AAAAIAAJ.
niederelbe.de Skyride information (in German)
Earth Station 9 many facts and figures taken from this source (but corroborated at other sources)
niederelb.de international Transporter bridge information, see also the Transporter bridge article.
Chicago Public Library Century of Progress materials
worldfairs.free.fr forum (in french) with some very clear pictures of the cars, cabling, towers and other details
Havlik, Robert J. (1992). “The Chicago Century of Progress Sky-Ride 1932-1935” (Google books (snippet view)). Image File: A Journal from the Curt Teich Postcard Archives (Wauconda, IL: Lake County Museum) 7 (1): 36. http://books.google.com/books?id=X_5UAAAAMAAJ.
Magee, H. W. (May 1933). “Aerial ferries, the bridges of the future” (Google books). Popular Mechanics 59 (5): 666669 and 130A-131A. http://books.google.com/books?id=J-IDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA627&pg=PA666#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved November 13, 2009.
Further reading
Troyano, Leonardo Fernndez (2003) (Google books). Bridge Engineering: a global perspective. London: Thomas Telford. p. 740. ISBN 9780727732156. http://books.google.com/books?id=0u5G8E3uPUAC.
Kretschmer, Winfried Geschichte der Weltausstellungen (1st edition), Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt (Germany) , ISBN 3-593-36273-2, 1999; pp. 192.
Ratigan, William (1959) Highways Over Broad Waters, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; pp. 224-227. ASIN B0007IY0OC
External links
BridgePix.com blog entry showing colored postcard view
Library of congress panorama taken by Harry Koss; August 22, 1933.
Library of congress panorama taken by Harry Koss; October 30, 1933.
Postcard image from niederelbe.de
Image Search from SAIC (School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
Categories: Amusement rides | Bridges completed in 1933 | Bridges in Illinois | Bridges in Chicago, Illinois | History of Chicago, Illinois | Transporter bridges
I am an expert from China Toys Suppliers, usually analyzes all kind of industries situation, such as vibrating exercise machines , swimming life vest.
Processing your request, Please wait....
