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Understanding 9/11tv San Diegos Balboa Park CSPAN January 7, 2017 10:42am-10:56am EST
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>> it's coming out nicely now. >> yep. >> you can watch american artifacts and other american history tv programs anytime by visiting our website, c-span.org/history. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] >> you are watching american history tv, 48 hours of history programming every weekend on c-span3. follow us on facebook and twitter to get our schedule and keep up with the latest history news. >> c-span is in san diego learning were -- learning more about the cities tour rich history. up next, we learn more about the the's history and how
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exposition helped grow the city of san diego. this is one of the highlights of our city. it was setup in 1968. it was set aside to be a respite from the downtown, from the chaos, from the havoc that goes on in the city. although a park is -- balboa park is the cultural mecca of our region. all ofhe impetus for these really dynamic things happening in the united states and the world. "san diego invites the world. -- advice the world." this is the exposition here in san diego. came to beboa park is a result of the panama canal, which opened in 1915. san diego had the reputation of
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being a wild west town. it had a small population. there were 30,000 people who lived here. and there was an awful lot of ice here. san diego wanted to change its reputation. it wanted to recognize the fact it was an up-and-coming city, and that was the dream of some of the founding fathers and mothers here. that it could become a metropolis it staged appropriately and it had industry brought to it. one of the people responsible for our exposition here in san diego is aubrey davidson. aubrey davidson was the president of the chamber of commerce in 1908. it was announced that the united states was taking over the panama canal project and it would be completed in 1915. he saw that as an opportunity for san diego to come forward and introduce itself to the world. , there was the exposition
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and they announce that to the folks in town. for a few years, they did the financing to build the exposition and it opened on december 31, 1914 at midnight. there was a telegraph sent by woodrow wilson in washington, d.c. to turn on all of the lights, and that happened at midnight. all of the people were coming through and about 40,000 people the opening night ceremonies. and it's been a highlight of balboa park ever since. to be the commerce and industry building and we had in it, adding machines and that kind of production for business. one of the highest production pieces that we have here in our exhibit is the registry book of all of the different people who came here.
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it was so successful, it continued into 1916. and when you came across the bridge into the california building, there was this book waiting for you to sign in. signatures.d three .8 million people came to the exposition in 1915 and 16. and the majority of those folks names are listed in the book. people also went across the street from us to the county building where it there were examples of agriculture dropped the county. and one other very important elements. we tried to teach people about different cultures as much as possible. it was a time when the world was opening up. we wanted to make sure that people had a chance to learn about the culture existing here
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and the united states was not that far out of the union wars. -- the indian wars. it was an opportunity to showcase people in the united states. we built a place for them to to becometructures home places and they lived on the site for the duration of the exposition. people could walk and amongst them and learn from them directly what their cultural experiences were like. to give you a sense of what it was like to be here in 1915, fortunately we do have the layout -- some parts of the park are as they were in 1915. there were four main structures supposed to stay here in 1915. we will take a look at those. we will wander around the park. cabrilloanding on the bridge. this is the main entrance to the
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california exposition. this was a grand entrance. you are coming over a very deep you are going to enter into this fantasy war -- fantasy world. that is what expositions were trying to create, and atmosphere you had never seen before. it was housed in something quite foreign to most people. so, people came across the bridge after going through their missions on the other side. and they wander up this grand esplanade, you might say, and approach the first building. the first building that we have, that you see here in the exposition grounds is the former park, ground building. here you see it as it was first built. theng gill was one of
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greatest architects in san diego at the time. he brought this modernism to san diego. however, he then worked on other projects. and bertrand goodhue was chosen architect of the exposition grounds. his architectural style is very different. and as you take a look at the dome, they are going to be using structures found in other parts of the world as inspiration for buildings here. he is adopting a spanish revival whichnish colonial style, was very different from what people had seen in other parts of the world. building,e california the --designed to house it shows different -- how's the
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state of california. it showcases different cultures run the world. it was greeted by bertrand hughes. he wanted to create that mystical city. and the largest building in those ancient walled cities is usually a church. the tower or the dome building -- modeled after a real structure into later, spain. all of the decoration on the outside is very intricate. as people entered into the exposition grounds, one of the important parts of why this expo was created was to celebrate the fact that san diego was the first city you would come to in the united states after going through the panama canal. so the imagery used on the outside, the entrance into the park was this image of two people, one representing
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pacifica, the other representing atlantic, and they are the ocean. and in the center, you see them italian there. they have a ship. it's going through the canal. immediately is telling people what this exposition was built for and that's the opening of the panama canal. is today as it was in the past one of the main entertainment venues in ludlow park. from san francisco moved here. he saw that the park needed to have a main entertainment venue -- he and hishis brother had purchased for a different park, they had decided to give it to the exposition instead. we're fortunate we have it. it is an outdoor hype organ.
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at the time it was built, it was the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world. for a while we lost that title ii of place in the czech republic, but just recently we have again put in more pipe, so it is once again the largest pipe organ in the world. this is the main street that works are the park in one of the most popular places that people like to come and visit is the botanical building behind me right now. the structure was the largest glass structure of its kind in the world at the time it was built and it was built to house primarily plants from all over the world. look at the exposition grounds, you will see a lot of grass. many of the landscape planners believed, as we do today, the environment does not support having a lot of grass grown
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here. exposition,t of our bertrand goodhue, he comes from back east and he was going to change his architectural style to make people feel comfortable coming from the east. he thought that they needed to have something more familiar to them. he had all of the areas between buildings planted in grass and the foliage that you see was adding in as well. it was familiar to people coming from the east, but new and the -- fantastical for people coming from other parts of the world. >> this weekend, we are of sanng the history diego, california. learn more about san diego and the other stops on our cities tour at www.c-span.org
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/citiestour. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. ♪ ♪ >> the presidential inauguration of donald trump is friday, january 20. c-span will have live coverage of all of the day's edmonson ceremonies. watch live on c-span and c-span.org and listen live on the free c-span radio app. >> in 1955, 15-year-old african-american in the till was kidnapped and murdered while visiting relatives in mississippi. the case went to trial, and two white suspects were acquitted by
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an all-white jury. author devery anderson talks about his book "in it till : the murder that shocked the world and propel the civil rights movement." i am representing as the scholar in residence of the kansas city public library system. [applause] you are in for a very exciting treat, and to keep it going in a flowing way, i am destined to wed the introduction, so stay on point. but the person, my friend, who is here tonight, who came from southlake, utah, his name is devery
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