Chicago’s World’s Fair featured a two-speed moving sidewalk carrying visitors to the Peristyle

The first moving walkway appeared in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, United States. It was also the longest ever, and riders paid five cents to use it. Separate levels let riders stand or sit while moving along the route. It ran over 1 kilometre along a pier and onwards to the Exposition entrance.

According to John J. Flinn’s 1893 Official Guide to the World’s Columbian Exposition, one half of the platform travelled at three miles an hour, while the other moved at six miles an hour. Passengers paid five cents to use it at the exposition. The walkway was destroyed by fire in 1894, according to Guinness World Records.How the moving sidewalk worked at the 1893 World's FairThe guide lists the attraction under the heading ‘Moveable Sidewalk’ in its section of practical information for visitors.

It calls it ‘a mechanical contrivance’ that carried passengers from the steamship landing at the pier to the Peristyle. The structure consisted of a continuous double platform.