The Chicago Tribune has posted a video mash-up of Chicago aerial scenes, pairing vintage film footage—shot in 1914 from a dirigible flying over the city—with modern video of the same locations.

The German Building (looking south)

Of particular interest to fans of the 1893 World’s Fair are scenes of the Midway Plaisance (shown at 3:45 minutes in the video) followed by a fly-over of the 58th Street Beach (at 4:15), where during the fair were the Great Britain Government Building (“Victoria House”), North Pier, and the (replica) U.S.S. Battleship Illinois. The dirigible then flies right past the beautiful German Building, one of very few structures that remained after the fair, destroyed by fire in 1925. The next shot (at 4:30) shows the old Palace of Fine Arts, which in 1914 served as the first Field Museum. The building’s exterior looks to be in rough shape in this 1914 film. (In 1920, the Field Museum moved downtown into its new and current building, and the old World’s Fair building was completely rebuilt in the 1930s for the Museum of Science and Industry.) Also shown in the video is Burnham and Root’s 1881 Refectory building in Washington Park (at 3:20).

View the video HERE.