page_title: New York Crystal Palace
section_title: Destruction
hierarchical_section_title: New York Crystal Palace / Destruction
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Démonstartion du frein de chute par Elisha OTIS au Crystal Palace en 1854.English: Elisha Otis demo of his free-fall prevention mechanism, Crystal Palace, 1854.
context_page_description: New York Crystal Palace was an exhibition building constructed for the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City in 1853, which was under the presidency of the mayor Jacob Aaron Westervelt. The building stood in Reservoir Square.
context_section_description: The New York Crystal Palace itself was destroyed by fire on October 5, 1858. When it burned, the American Institute Fair was being held there. The fire began in a lumber room on the side adjacent to 42nd Street. Within fifteen minutes its dome fell and in twenty-five minutes the entire structure had burned to the ground. No lives were lost but the loss of property amounted to more than $350,000. This included the building, valued at $125,000, and exhibits and valuable statuary remaining from the World's Fair.
  Elisha Otis demonstrated the safety elevator, which prevented the fall of the cab if the cable broke, at the Crystal Palace in 1854 in a death-defying, dramatic presentation. That year another building directly inspired by London's Crystal Palace, the Glaspalast in Munich, was inaugurated.
caption: Elisha Otis free-fall safety demonstration in 1853
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