Panama-California Exposition ~ San Diego ~ 1915-1916

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views of "The Isthmus"
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"The Isthmus" was the popular 2500 foot long amusement zone.

The name of this midway or "pleasure street" derived from the Isthmus of Panama, site of the Panama Canal.

Attractions included a China Town, with an underground opium den where effigies in wax showed the horrors of addiction; a replica of a Pala gem mine; a ride called "The Toadstool," consisting of a whirring disc on which few could keep their balance; another ride called "Climbing the Yelps," which simulated a descent into an erupting volcano; a Ferris wheel; a roller coaster in Anfalulu Land, nearly 6,000 ft. in length and equipped with a sound apparatus that ground out "We Don't Know Where We're Going But We're On Our Way"; a historic display called "The Story of the Missions"; an ostrich farm in a building modeled after an Egyptian pyramid; a motion picture studio where films of scenes along the Isthmus were made daily; a Hawaiian Village with the entrance in the shape of a volcano like Kilauea; and an aquarium presided over by King Neptune, consisting of tanks of ocean-filled water in one of which a helmeted diver rescued a waxen damsel from a sunken stateroom.


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