The Tower of Jewels was the one thing everyone remembered. It stood on the main Scott Street axis over the arch between the South Gardens and the Court of the Universe, "the tallest object anywhere about" (Todd), overtopping every other building by more than 200 ft. From Marin it rose above the ridgeline of San Francisco's northern hills. Thomas Hastings built it in seven diminishing stages above a massive cubical base: colonnades of green columns at several levels, eagles on high galleries, braziers at the corners, and at the top a column on which crouching atlantes held up an armillary sphere 20 ft across.
Its hanging glass jewels gave it its name. Todd says 102,000 "Novagems," cut and polished in Bohemia, from 21 to 47 millimeters across, faceted like diamonds, backed with small mirrors and hung on brass hooks so they swung and trembled in the breeze. The last consignment of 5,000 nearly got caught in Austria by the war. By day they threw ruby, emerald, sapphire, topaz and aquamarine sparks across the grounds. At night 54 searchlights lit them. On special occasions the tower was "burned": ruby lights and red fire behind its colonnades made it look like "a pyramid of incandescent metal."
Through the base ran a coffered barrel vault 75 ft wide and 119 ft high, lined with William de Leftwich Dodge's murals of the Canal: Balboa's discovery, the purchase from France, American labor, and the locks swinging open as the "Gateway of Nations." Inscriptions on the south front traced the history of Panama from 1501 to 1915; those facing the court traced California from Cabrillo in 1542 to statehood in 1850. The wing colonnades each enclosed a small court with a mural fountain: Youth to the east, El Dorado to the west.
Structurally it was a steel skeleton wearing a wood-and-plaster costume. Six steel frames, four of them battered, carried the load. Below 152 ft they were two-hinged arches on twelve cast-steel spherical bases, on concrete-capped clusters from 600 piles. Timber brackets bolted to the steel carried the stacked decks above. A fire watchman was stationed in the little gallery at the top throughout the season.
The official Opening Day ceremonies were held on a grandstand built against its south face, overlooking the Fountain of Energy.
Then it loomed through the mist a legendary and incredible thing, brought back from the world of Titans; the work of spirits instead of men.
Frank Morton Todd, The Story of the Exposition, vol. 2, ch. LV (1921)
