Three-lap track at the Midwinter Fair

Place

San Francisco, CA

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The executive committee of the fair have given to the athletic auxiliary funds sufficient to build splendid athletic grounds just south of the south drive in the park - the grounds at the present time used for recreation purposes. It is the intention to put in a three-lap running track and a two or two and a half-lap bicycle track. The grounds will be used during the existence of the fair by the fair promoters, and to them will accrue the revenue which may be derived therefrom. After the fair is over the grounds will be thrown open to the public as a general recreation grounds for the city, and will undoubtedly be of lasting benefit to the community.

Elwell & Rice, the engineers employed by the Bay City Wheelmen in the construction of the track in Central Park, have been instructed to prepare preliminary drawings for the bicycle track. It is the intention to build it with a banking of about six feet on the two ends, with stretches of about thirty-five feet in width. This will give to San Francisco a track that will be equaled by very few, if any, tracks in the world. It is the intention to offer such prizes as will induce the attendance during the months of April, May and June, 1894, of the very cream of the racing talent of the United States, and, in fact, of the world.

THE CYCLING MEN. - A SUPERB TRACK IS TO BE CONSTRUCTED. - San Francisco Chronicle, 25 Nov 1893

PLAN OF THE ATHLETIC PARK AT THE MIDWINTER FAIR.

PLAN OF THE ATHLETIC PARK AT THE MIDWINTER FAIR.
Georeferenced with OpenStreetMap and Golden Gate Park, 1903, Britton & Rey

The accompanying plan of the new athletic grounds was made from the original plan in the possession of Messrs. Elwell & Rice, the engineers. The track for pedestrians will be three and a half laps to the mile. It will have a cinder surface and the three-lap bicycle track will have a surface of concrete. The bicycle track will be banked both at the curves and in the straight.

The running track will be fifteen feet wide on the backstretch and twenty feet six inches in the homestretch. This latter will include a 120-yard straightaway.

The athletic park will contain a grand stand capable of holding 5,000 persons. It will be possible, however, for Fair visitors to watch the progress of the games from outside the Park, as the whole will be inclosed by a breast-high picket fence.

In the matter of competitors from a distance it is already an understood thing that the premier bicyclists of the East are going to attend. Among these will be Zimmerman and Sanger, the men who have done so much in the record-breaking line lately.