New York City’s 1939–40 and 1964–65 World’s Fairs: from Valley of Ashes to grandiose twenty-first century projects

Though separated by a momentous quarter-century of world history, the 1939–40 and 1964–65 New York City World’s Fairs had a great deal in common. They were both held at the same site in Flushing Meadows, a swampy former garbage dump in the Borough of Queens, and both were among the world’s largest by land area and in public participation. Robert Moses directed land reclamation for the first fair and served as President of the second one. Both fairs offered visions of world peace and prosperity, and of ultra-modern automobile-dominated cities of the future, but both were severely impacted by global and U.S. political and military events. The first coincided with the outbreak of World War II and lost many of its participant exhibitions in Year 2. The second coincided with rising crime and civil disorder in the U.S., and with the intensification of the Vietnam War. Both were among the world’s largest fairs. Neither of them broke even financially, but the investments made between 1934 and 1967 created momentum for ongoing recreational and real estate development projects, the largest of which is currently under construction, with an even larger one currently under review.