Crystal Palace, England

The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected inHyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's 990,000 square feet (92,000 m2) of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in the Industrial Revolution. Designed byJoseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was 1,851 feet (564 m) long, with an interior height of 128 feet (39 m).

After the exhibition, the building was moved to a new park in Penge Common next to an affluent area of London called Sydenham Hill, a well-heeled suburb full of large villas. The Crystal Palace was enlarged and stood in the area from 1854 to 1936, when it was destroyed by fire. It attracted many thousands of visitors from all levels of society. The name Crystal Palace (the satirical magazine Punch usually gets the credit for coining the phrase)was later used to denote this area of south London and the park that surrounds the site, home of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

A petting zoo featuring alpaca's with "Beatle hair cuts," is all that remains at the park where the Crystal Palace stood.

Part front (lh) and part rear (rh) view and overview of London's Crystal Palace by John Paxton 1851

Remains of the salt water tanks

John Paxton, designer of the Crystal Palace

Aerial view above 1934 and below burning in 1936

The Crystal Palace was originally built for the Great Exhibition of 1851- an event held to show off technology from around the world due to the recent Industrial Revolution. At its peak, it stood 135 ft. tall, it stretched 1,848 long, at times there were 2,000 people working to build it, and it cost the equivalent of over 13 million dollars to build. The two towers seen in the picture were to store water that fueled water features and fountains. The building was made of cast-iron and glass, and it was designed by Joseph Paxton. 

The Crystal Palace was later disassembled and moved, at the today equivalent of about 100 million dollars, and never quite relived the glory days of the 6.2 million visitor Exhibition. On the 30th of November 1936 the building burned to the ground.

What is so amazing is not that they were able to built this beautiful structure, but that they then dismantled it and moved it, and built it again..