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Joseph Paxton stood in the churned mud of Hyde Park , rain drumming against the brim of his wool hat , staring up at the bare cast - iron skeletons that were supposed to house the Great Exhibition . Three hundred workmen were waiting for his signal , steam cranes hissed impatiently in the grey mist , and the royal building committee had just dispatched an ultimatum : unless the central transept could prove its structural stability by dusk , the glass palace would be dismantled in favor of a conventional brick warehouse . " The Birmingham foundries sent thirty arched ribs with misaligned bolt sockets , " said Robert , the master founder , wiping greasy rain from his knuckles . " If we send them back across the midlands for recast , the opening will be delayed by six weeks . " " We cannot afford to do so , " Paxton said , running his bare hand along the rough flange of the nearest column . " The committee demanded stone foundations ; we promised them hollow iron columns that double as drainpipes . If we falter now , every newspaper in London will declare the project a catastrophe . " Robert asked whether he should halt the glazing teams on the lower tiers , but Paxton told him not to . Stopping the glaziers would shatter the men's morale , and five thousand sheets of cylinder glass were already stacked in straw beneath the canvas awnings . " The public expects a disaster , " Robert admitted , looking up at the towering arch that curved fifty yards above the turf . " Half the architectural journals claimed the wind off the Serpentine would buckle the galleries . " " They did , " Paxton replied with a brief smile , " and they will retract their words before summer . The wind exerts lateral pressure , but the diagonal iron ties will absorb the strain . " He ordered four portable hand - drills brought forward to the foot of the scaffold . One squad re - drilled the bolt housings to fit tapered steel pins ; another , the interlocking brackets for the gutters . Paxton climbed the wooden staging himself , checking each joint with a plumb line . The iron was cold and slick under his palms , but as the pins were driven home by sledgehammer blows , the enormous rib stopped swaying and locked rigid against the uprights . By late afternoon , the drizzle had ceased , leaving pale yellow sunlight breaking through the clouds . The high arch spanned the ancient elms of the park without touching a single leaf . Paxton tapped the hollow column with his knuckles , satisfied by the dull , immoveable ring of sound . The committee would arrive at sunset to inspect the work , and they would find the grandest glass roof in Christendom standing exactly where its architect had promised .
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