Inspired by the Eiffel Tower created for the 1889 Paris Exposition, architect Alberto Palacio designed this massive globe for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Honoring the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World, the steel sphere would measure nearly 1,000 feet in diameter. Circling the pseudo planet would be a spiral stairway running more than half a mile long, leading up to a "North Pole," where a replica of one of Columbus' ships would be docked. But the globe's Earthsize price tag – an estimated $130 million in today's currency – prevented Palacio from ever building his better world.