“Erected and glazed in the space of a year, Contamin’s shed was a huge ‘tent’ of blue and white translucent glass covering a clear space of 800 by 380 feet and held in place by 10-foot-deep, wrought-iron, lattice arches; steel, at that date, still being extremely expensive. Beneath this canopy, mobile platforms running on rails, shuttled some 100,000 people a day above the latest examples of industrial machinery laid out at their feet; a mechanical panorama to be viewed solipsistically, so to speak, from the vantage point of a mobile exhibiting machine.”

— Kenneth Frampton and Yukio Futagawa. Modern Architecture 1851-1945.

Details

Built for the 1889 International Exhibition, Paris, the centenary celebration of the French Revolution (as was the Eiffel Tower) and demolished in 1910.

427 m (1400 ft) long, 45 m (150 ft) high, with spans of 114 m (375 ft). Completely glazed.