From The Devil in the White City, during which the World’s Fair Committee in 1893 hears proposals for a centerpiece to the fair–much as the Eiffel Tower was in the previous fair.

Keep in mind the book is a work of non-fiction, as in, it’s all true.

Another inventor, J. B. McComber, representing the Chicago-Tower Spiral-Spring Ascension and Toboggan Transportation Company, proposed a tower with a height of 8,947 feet, nearly nine times the height of the Eiffel Tower, with a base one thousand feet in diameter sunk two thousand feet into the earth. Elevated rails would lead from the top of the tower all the way to New York, Boston, Baltimore and other cities. Visitors ready to conclude their visit to the fair and daring enough to ride elevators to the top would then toboggan all the way back home.

“As the cost of the tower and its slides is of secondary importance,” McComber noted, “I do not mention it here, but will furnish figures upon application.”

Editor’s Note: McComber and his uber-toboggan did not get the gig. Some guy named Ferris with a big spinning wheel did.