Promise

Sixty years ago, the giants of American Commerce constructed the largest celebration the world had ever seen. Boldly positioned in Flushing Meadows, the New York's World's Fair was in part the vision of Robert Moses, a prophet of progress reared in New Haven and schooled at Yale.

Progress was the World's Fair theme. It introduced new materials, new technologies (television, for example), new ideas, and a new spirit. Out of the despair of depression, the fair dared to imagine a world that might surmount the turmoil of war that was on the horizon.

And a Legacy

Sixty years ago, New Haven's A.C. Gilbert had become the world's largest manufacturer of learning toys. The new bridges that laced New York City to the Nation echoed Erector Set constructions that began in Fair Haven. Gilbert introduced the Royal Blue, a streamlined American Flyer locomotive that was the hope of his companies future.

> Memories of the Fair

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