page_title: Panama–California Exposition
section_title: Exposition layout
hierarchical_section_title: Panama–California Exposition / Exposition layout
caption_attribution_description: English: Promotional image of the West Gate of Balboa Park for marketing the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, California.
context_page_description: The Panama–California Exposition was an exposition held in San Diego, California, between January 1, 1915, and January 1, 1917. The exposition celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, and was meant to tout San Diego as the first U.S. port of call for ships traveling north after passing westward through the canal. The fair was held in San Diego's large urban Balboa Park.
context_section_description: The layout of the 640-acre (260 ha) expo was contained by three entrances on the west, north, and east.
  The East Gateway was approached by drive and San Diego Electric Railway trolley cars winding up from the city through the southern portion of the park.
  From the west, the Cabrillo Bridge's entrance was marked with blooming giant century plants and led straight to the dramatic West Gate (or City Gate), with the city's coat-of-arms at its crown. The archway was flanked by engaged Doric orders supporting an entablature, with figures symbolizing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans joining waters together, in commemoration of the opening of the Panama Canal. These figures were the work of Furio Piccirilli.
  While the west gateway was part of the Fine Arts Building, the east gateway was designed to be the formal entrance for the California State Building. The East or State Gateway carried the California state coat-of-arms over the arch. The spandrels over the arch were filled with glazed colored tile commemorating the 1769 arrival of Spain and the 1846  State Constitutional Convention at Monterey.
  Near a large parking lot, the North gate led to the 'Painted Desert' and 2,500-foot (760 m) long Isthmus street. The Santa Fe Railway-sponsored 'Painted Desert' (called "Indian Village" by guests), a 5-acre (2.0 ha), 300-person exhibit populated by seven Native American tribes including the Apache, Navajo, and Tewa. The 'Painted Desert', which design and construction was supervised by the Southwestern archeologist Jesse L. Nusbaum, had the appearance of a rock structure but was actually wire frames covered in cement.
  The Isthmus was surrounded by concessions, amusement rides and games, a replica gem mine, an ostrich farm, and a 250-foot (76 m) replica of the Panama Canal. One of the concessions along the isthmus was a "China Town".
caption: The Cabrillo Bridge looking towards the West Gate
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 10.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2014:11:14 16:58:01", "Image ExifOffset": "172", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "310", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8015", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1914", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1429"}