Wild Video Shows How In 1893, Paris Built A Giant Moving Sidewalk That Could Carry 14,000 People At A Time

Every once in a while you see something from the past that makes you realize people over a century ago were somehow thinking more futuristically than we are today.

Case in point, the Great Wharf Moving Sidewalk, a massive moving walkway that transported huge crowds during the World's Columbian Exposition.

Yes, in 1893 people were literally riding a giant moving sidewalk across the fairgrounds like something straight out of a science fiction movie.

The system was designed by American architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee and American engineer Max E. Schmidt, and it was intended to move enormous crowds efficiently through the sprawling exposition.

Instead of walking from attraction to attraction, visitors could simply step onto a series of moving platforms and glide across the fairgrounds while standing still.

And this was not some tiny novelty ride.

The massive system could reportedly accommodate up to 14,000 people at once.

At peak times it was moving crowds constantly, giving thousands of visitors a chance to experience what many at the time believed was a glimpse into the future of urban transportation.

Video footage and historical images show people dressed in late nineteenth century clothing, suits, long dresses, and hats, calmly standing on the moving platforms while the sidewalk carried them along above the crowds below.

It looks almost surreal, like a scene from a futuristic city imagined decades before modern infrastructure existed.