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All the United States New York State New York City Queens Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
AO Edited

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park

The remnants of two World's Fairs are here, complete with a 12-story globe, a mini-Manhattan, and a UFO-shaped pavilion.

Queens, New York

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Rebekah Otto
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Detail of the Texaco map terrazzo mosaic tile floor of the New York State Pavilion (Tent of Tomorrow), 2009   Avoiding Regret
Inside the Tent of Tomorrow of the New York State Pavilion (2009)   Avoiding Regret
Unisphere at night, view from Terrace on the Park (2008)   Avoiding Regret
Inside the Tent of Tomorrow of the New York State Pavilion (2008)   Avoiding Regret
Hall of Science rocket   Avoiding Regret
Port Authority Building (now Terrace on the Park) (2008)   Avoiding Regret
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Rocket Thrower sculpture (with Unisphere in background)   wallyg/Flickr
Unisphere   wallyg/Flickr
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Portrait of Robert Moses from a mural by Andy Warhol for the 1964 World’s Fair, installed as a mosaic in 1998.   lakupper13 / Atlas Obscura User
observation towers   Mark Loftin / Atlas Obscura User
Unisphere   Mark Loftin / Atlas Obscura User
New York State pavilion (1964-1965)   Corina / Atlas Obscura User
New York State Pavilion (1964-1965)   Corina / Atlas Obscura User
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About

After a long ride from Manhattan, most get off the 7 train to catch a baseball game at Citi Field, but there are things to see if you walk in the opposite direction too. Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, is only one of many attractions in Flushing Meadows, a huge public park built for the 1939 World's Fair.

Developer and urban planner Robert Moses oversaw the creation of the 897-acre park on a dumping grounds in Queens—labeled by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby as the "valley of ashes." In preparation for the 1939 World's Fair, the first of its kinds to use "the future" as its theme, dozens of buildings and structures were erected, many of them experimental in design.

In 1964, the park hosted another World's Fair. As was the case after the '39 exposition, many of the structures were dismantled when the fair closed (several rides and attractions, including It's a Small World, ended up at Disneyland) , but the New York State Pavilion is still here, an unused and vacant reminder of the futurist architectural style that dominated the fair. The flying saucer-shaped Pavilion, with its trio of observation towers hovering above, is one of the most iconic images of the park

Another famous icon of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is the Unisphere, a "12-story high, spherical stainless steel representation of the Earth," the world's largest globe structure. Three metal loops encircle the giant globe representing the paths of "Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, and Telstar, the first active communications satellite." It was designated a New York City landmark in 1995.

The Panorama of the City of New York, an amazingly accurate scale model of the city, was one of the most popular attractions of the 1964 World's Fair. After a refurbishing in the early 90s, the model was updated to include every New York City building constructed before 1992. Today, the Panorama is on display at the park's Queens Museum.

Although the World's Fairs have long ago come and gone, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is still a vibrant urban oasis for the local community. Besides Citi Field and the Queens Museum, the park is home to the USTA National Tennis Center, which hosts the annual U.S. Open tennis tournament, the New York Hall of Science, the Queens Zoo, and more.

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World's Fair Statues Small Worlds And Model Towns

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Added By

Rebekah Otto

Edited By

dlc31723, Corina, mbison, Allison...

  • dlc31723
  • Corina
  • mbison
  • Allison
  • thegenxjourney
  • Mark Loftin
  • Babs81
  • cait7911
  • lakupper13
  • dpagonis

Published

September 5, 2009

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  • http://www.queensmuseum.org/2013/10/panorama-of-the-city-of-new-york
  • http://tentoftomorrow.com/default.aspx
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flushing_Meadows%E2%80%93Corona_Park
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
Kennedy Circle
Queens, New York, 11368
United States
40.746179, -73.844478
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