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| WOODED ISLAND AND TRANSPORTATION BUILDING - We
here obtain excellent views of the Wooded
Island and the
Transportation Building. One of the four
corner pavilions of the
Manufactures Building comes well in view and
the secrets of the roof
of that vast edifice may be explored. The first roof, or "lean-to,"
is over the loggia. The next roof then ascends from the windows of
the galleries, and comes to an apex which is seen in the picture.
The other, or inner side of this roof, descends until it reaches the
great ascending arches, so that when avalanches of snow descended on
those arches this outer roof was always crushed, and the snow piled
in tons on the big floor underneath. The scene on which the reader
looks - its walks, shrubs, flowers, waters, palaces and balustrades -
was a wet sandy swale in September, 1891. The island was designed
with a view of separating the masses of people, and for sanitary
reasons, there being apprehension that a World's Fair disease might
appear, as has happened at festivals of this kind. While assuring
fresh air to the people, the island exquisitely enhanced the beauty
of the scene, and offered a vista second in rank only to the Court of
Honor. On the right is the south end of Horticultural Hall; next is
Music Hall; next the Transportation, with its
Golden Door; next the
Mines, and then the bayed fronts of the
Electricity. The
Manufactures was isolated from the west side of the park, and could
be easiest reached by the lake route. |
