The Worlds Columbian Exposition the official shortened name for the Worlds Fair: Columbian Exposition,also known as The Chicago Worlds Fair was a Worlds Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbuss arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St. Louis for the honor of hosting the fair. The fair had a profound effect on architecture, the arts, Chicagos self-image, and American industrial optimism.

The Chicago Columbian Exposition was, in large part, designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted. It was the prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues thought a city should be. It was designed to follow Beaux Arts principles of design, namely French neoclassical architecture principles based on symmetry, balance, and splendor. The exposition covered more than 600 acres or 2.4 km, featuring nearly 200 new but purposefully temporary buildings of predominately neoclassical architecture, canals and lagoons, and people and cultures from around the world.

More than 27 million people equivalent to about half the U.S. population attended the exposition during its six-month run. Its scale and grandeur far exceeded the other world fairs, and it became a symbol of the emerging American Exceptionalism, much in the same way that the Great Exhibition became a symbol of the Victorian era United Kingdom. Dedication ceremonies for the fair were held on October 21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not actually opened to the public until May 1, 1893.

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