Opening Day
- Part III is called "In The White City." Let the fair commence!
- Two hundred thousand Chicagoans line the procession along Michigan Avenue towards Jackson Park.
- The parade passes the villages at the Midway and the "woefully incomplete" (3.1.2) Ferris Wheel.
- The frozen grounds seem to have melted overnight, and the debris that Stead noted twelve hours prior has been cleared away.
- "When the Fair opened," one of Burnham's men later states, "Olmsted's lawns were the first amazement" (3.1.5).
- President Grover Cleveland delivers a short speech, people sing My Country ’Tis of Thee, and a woman in the crowd realizes her purse is gone.
- And thus, "the great fair had begun" (3.1.13).
- While much work lay ahead for Burnham and his architects, including finishing the wheel, success of the exposition seems secured. Finally.
- A friend tells Burnham, "The scene burst on me with the beauty of a full-blown rose" (3.1.14).
- An estimated 500,000 people attend the Park on Opening Day.
- But the optimism only lasts a day.
- The following day, only 10,000 people come to Jackson Park.
- The fair's committee predicts that if this attendance rate continues, the fair will be a financial failure.
- Meanwhile, the nation's economic failure is imminent. Banks are failing, and people who otherwise may have traveled to the fair now stay at home.
- "The terrifying economy was discouraging enough, but so too were reports of the unfinished character of the fair" (3.1.17).
- People really want to see this Ferris Wheel, so as long as it remains incomplete, people aren't budging.