Postcard:Electric Tower

For visitors to the Pan-American Exposition of 1901, the real beauty of the fair was not the elaborate architecture or sprawling 350-acre fairgrounds but the transition that occurred each evening as the sun set. As the sky darkened, an estimated 240,000 eight-watt bulbs gradually filled with light, outlining the elaborate buildings and filling the fairgrounds with daylight. The Electric Tower, measuring 391 feet high and boasting 44,000 electric light bulbs, projected beams of light from the tower's peak. Some claimed the tower lights were powerful enough, they shone Canada. Patrons were equally impressed to learn of the power source that fueled this electric phenomenon -- Niagara Falls, located 25 miles away.