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| LOOKING SOUTH ACROSS THE GRAND PLAZA - This
view, with unusual fidelity, details the loggia of Machinery Hall and the Colonnade of the south screen, joining Machinery Hall with the Agricultural Building. At the left, by
descending the stairway, past Kemeys' and Potter's elks, the lower
level may be reached, and one of the electric fountains inspected.
The MacMonnies' Fountain is in full play, with the circular cascade
flowing. On each side of this fountain the plain columns with eagles
may be discerned and distinguished from the rostral columns, one of
which is nearer to the Obelisk. There
were six of these rostral columns, on each of which stood a Neptune
with trident, by Johannes Galer, a sculptor of Chicago. It was
called rostral because from its shaft six rostra or beaks of boats
protruded, in honor of the sea, a practice possibly taken from the
Phoenicians and copied at Rome, Carthage, Genoa and Venice. There
were two bandstands on the Plaza, one of which is seen. The Victories on the spires of Machinery Hall were by Robert Kraus, of
Boston, and M. A. Waagen, and both sets were cast in copper by W. H.
Mullins, of Salem, Ohio. The mural decoration and latticed windows
of the loggia, which here spreads to the right, were expressive of
the grandeur of the Exposition, and on the cornice at convenient
intervals were the names of inventors and mechanics. This is one of
the most various of the sublime spectacles which the vanished city
presented. |
