The 1893 World's Fair: Too Big to Believe?

The 1893 World's Fair in Chicago reportedly drew 27 million visitors—nearly half the U.S. population at the time—over six months. On peak days, 700,000 people showed up. The host of the Big Mad Morning Show, Gimpy, is about 60/40 on whether that actually happened. "It's just insane when you think of the sheer magnitude," he says. "The planning alone. The corruption at that time. Chicago's notorious for their corruption. So the idea that this even got done is just sheer impressive on so many almost unbelievable."

The Numbers Problem

The math is what bothers Gimpy. Twenty-seven million visits over 184 days works out to about 145,000 visitors per day on average, with peak days hitting 700,000. A typical passenger train in 1893 carried about 600 passengers. To move 145,000 people by rail, you'd need roughly 290 trains per day. A train ticket from New York to Chicago cost about $25 at a time when the average monthly income was around $40. Chicago had about 90,000 hotel beds, which meant most of the 200,000 to 300,000 daily visitors had nowhere obvious to sleep. The fair allegedly handled this with temporary hotels, rail car sleepers, day trippers, and people staying with relatives or commuting from as far as South Bend and Aurora.