Unisphere Construction

A steel worker rides the cable of a crane at the construction site of the Unisphere in preparation of the 1964 New York World’s Fair, in Flushing Meadows, Queens.

Times photographer Patrick Burns took this photo of the fourteen-story stainless steel globe as it was being assembled on August 15, 1963. Robert Moses – described as “New York’s master builder” years later in his obit in The Times – said in a news conference that the 120-foot steel sphere “illustrates, symbolizes and embodies man’s achievements on a shrinking globe in an expanding universe.” The structure emphasized “the necessity of achieving peace through mutual understanding of all peoples,” he continued.

The next year, coverage in The Times continued: The Unisphere would be 12 stories high, The Times reported, and a three-foot model would be used to solve problems “so complex that they were broken into 3 separate sections,” according to an executive from the United States Steel Corporation, which presented the symbol to the city and to the fair.