ok.... this has me completely stoked! They built a ramp up to the roof of Madison Square Garden in 1900, for the 1st car show.... We need to insist on test ramps over and around all car show buildings! C'mon Jeep! Gut up and build the next most incredible show exhibit the world has ever seen!

Joseph H. McDuffee of Prest-O-Lite, driving a Locomobile steamer down the rooftop runway ramp for steam cars during the 1900 New York Auto Show held at Madison Square Garden in New York.

One method used to test cars in the infant days of the automobile industry. The picture shows a specially constructed incline on top of Madison Square Garden on which the hill climbing abilities of the "buzz wagons" as they were then called, were tested. It was a simple matter to descend and a real task to climb in those days.

A Times article on Nov. 4, 1900, said that 'facetious onlookers' - which almost certainly means reporters themselves - called that first exhibition 'The Horseless Horse Show.' And it probably was true that the auto show attracted the same socialites who attended a high-society horse show at that time of year.

Those who could afford to shop for a car at the auto show probably belonged to a clubby group of 'automobilists.' When those 'sportsmen' arrived in New York City, the first thing they did was compare notes on how far they had come - and especially how fast.

There was enough room left over in Madison Square Garden that first year for a track and a slalom course, so people could see the horseless carriages in motion.

Automobiles powered by internal combustion engines at the 1900 National Automobile Show were primitive, noisy and cantankerous. Most ran on a variety of “light spirits” such as stove gas, kerosene, naphtha, lamp oil, benzene, mineral spirits, alcohol, and gasoline.

https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/42217
http://www.autonews.com/article/19960626/ANA/606260838/there-wasnt-a-horse-in-sight-at-1900-n.y.-auto-show
https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A184815
https://untappedcities.com/2014/07/17/vintage-nyc-photography-murder-at-madison-square-gardens-rooftop-theater/
http://www.messynessychic.com/2017/03/17/new-yorks-incredible-lost-rooftop-theatres/

Photo by Nathan Lazarnick, 29 West 42nd Street, N.Y.