Google Doodle Celebrates London’s 1851 World’s Fair

One hundred sixty years ago London invited the world to the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations held in the new and astonishing Crystal Palace. The Google Doodle for today commemorates this event, and, as is the case lately with these doodles, this graphic is interactive. Your cursor over the doodle becomes a magnifying glass, letting you see details with greater clarity — including a number of miniature animations.

The Crystal Palace, originally erected in Hyde Park, threw a glass roof over 990,000 square feet of space. The building was moved and altered considerably in 1854. It entered a long period of decline and burned down in 1936, not long after it had enjoyed a renovation.

A replica, more or less, of the Crystal Palace has been built in Dallas, Texas, by Infomart.