The Devil in the White City

[Dave Monroe]

Further in Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City:
Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed
America (New York: Crown, 2003), "Vexed," pp. 128-45
...

"The exposition promised to surpass the Paris
expostion on every level ....  'To out Eiffel Eiffel'
had become a battle cry among the directors.
   "A competition held by the Tribune brought a wave
of implausible proposals....
   "... J.B. McComber, representing the Chicago-Tower
Spiral-Spring Ascension and Toboggan Transportation
Company, proposed a tower with a height of 8,947 feet,
nearly nine times the height of the Eiffel Tower, with
a bsae of one-thousand feet in diameter sunk two
thousand feet into the earth.  Elevated rails would
lead from the top of the tower all the way to New
York, Boston, Baltimore, and other cities.  Visitors
ready to conclude their visit to the fair and daring
enough to ride elevators to the top would then
toboggan all the way back home.  'As the cost of the
tower and its slides is of secondary importance,'
McComber noted, 'I do not mention it here, but will
furnish figures upon application.'" (pp. 134-5)

http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/devilinthewhitecity/home.html

--- Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City ...

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