| 1939 Liège | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| BIE-class | Specialized exposition |
| Category | International specialized exposition |
| Name | Exposition internationale de l'eau de 1939 |
| Building(s) | Albert Canal |
| Area | 70 hectares (170 acres) |
| Participant(s) | |
| Countries | 8 |
| Location | |
| Country | Belgium |
| City | Liège |
| Venue | Parc Astrid |
| Coordinates | 50°39′6.8″N 05°36′37.8″E / 50.651889°N 5.610500°E |
| Timeline | |
| Opening | 20 May 1939 |
| Closure | 2 September 1939 |
| Specialized expositions | |
| Previous | Second International Aeronautic Exhibition in Helsinki |
| Next | International Exhibition on Urbanism and Housing in Paris |
| Universal Expositions | |
| Previous | Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris |
| Next | Exposition internationale du bicentenaire de Port-au-Prince in Port-au-Prince |
| Simultaneous | |
| Universal | 1939 New York World's Fair |
The Exposition internationale de la technique de l'eau de 1939 was the third specialized exposition recognized by the Bureau International des Expositions. In 1936 Georges Truffaut proposed an exposition to celebrate the completion of the Albert Canal. The exposition's theme was water management and opened on 20 May 1939 by King Leopold III of Belgium. The canal itself was opened on 30 July 1939.
The exposition was situated on 70 hectares of land and 30 hectares of water on both riverbanks between the Albert Canal and the Atlas Bridge. On the site were exhibition halls, restaurants, attractions and a Meuse village with replicas of buildings from the Meuse valley. A part of the site was on land reclaimed from an unnavigable part of the Meuse.[1] An aerial cableway provided a panoramic view over the site.
The exposition was scheduled to run until November 1939, but on 31 August explosives under the Val Benoit Bridge and the Ougrée Bridge were detonated by lightning, resulting in 20 fatalities and 24 injured. The explosives were placed by the Belgian Army to destroy the bridges in case of war. When World War II started the next day it was decided to close the exposition immediately.