World’s Fair in San Francisco opens, featuring exhibits on the opening of the Panama Canal.

Sure, the Panama Canal was an astounding feat of engineering – conceived of by many of the European nations, attempted in early forms by the Spanish, then the Scottish, until finally taken up by the Americans in a project that lasted a half a century. But it was not considered to be much until another small feat of engineering in San Francisco — an Exposition to honor the opening of the canal — truly showcased the “13th Labor of Hercules.”

On this day, February 21, in 1915, the Panama Pacific International Exposition opened in San Francisco, over the mud flats in northern section of the city in what today comprises the Marina District.

A large poster advertising the exhibition proclaimed it to be the “13th Labour of Hercules.” Subtly, that slogan also referred to the city itself. San Francisco was still rebuilding, nine years after a devastation earthquake leveled three quarters of it, when work on the exhibition began. While Congressional funding measures stalled, $5 million was raised from private donors, with a matching amount coming from a grant by the State of California. A number of technological marvels were displayed at the Exhibition, including Ford automobiles, a telephone line that could connect users with the East Coast, and a ukelele – the guitar-like stringed musical instrument that came from Portugal by way of Hawaii and created a craze in the 1920s.