THE BEACON OF PROGRESS
A Minecraft Java Edition 1.18.2 world  ·  release v13 (final public version)

In 1900 the French architect Constant-Désiré Despradelle designed the Beacon of Progress: a
1,500-foot monument "to the glory of the American people" for the Chicago lakefront. It was never
built. This world builds it at 1 block = 4 feet, from the published drawings: a 100-foot terrace,
the plinth with its thirteen obelisks, the tapering shaft, and the lamp at 1,500 feet.

The drawings name the rooms but don't show their interiors, so the interiors here are imagined:
  * a 13-tier main theatre with backstage, fly galleries and dressing rooms
  * a hall for 5,000, four lecture halls, and 56 numbered floors up to the U.S. Weather Bureau
    at 1,364 ft
  * offices, residences and observatory storeys, with a directory at Level A
  * below the park: the Engine Hall (B1), the Vaults and a Gothic library (B2), and the Annex (B3)
  * further down: the Undercroft, the asylum tunnels and the catacombs
  * the Well of Descent, a double-helix stair 1,500 ft down to a cavern hall with a lake, the
    Resonance Engine, the Abyss, the Forge Below and the Sunken Archive
  * outside: the promenade and reflecting pool with 13 state obelisks, a forest park, and a
    coast out to the world border


REQUIREMENTS
  * Minecraft Java Edition 1.18.2.  Vanilla works; no mods are needed.  Fabric with Sodium or
    Iris is fine.
  * Other versions are untested.  The world sets its own height through a datapack written for
    1.18.2 (pack format 9), so newer versions may refuse it or cut off the depths.


INSTALL
  1. Unzip.  Move the folder "The Beacon of Progress" into your saves folder:
       Windows:  %APPDATA%\.minecraft\saves\
       macOS:    ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves/
       Linux:    ~/.minecraft/saves/
     (In a launcher like Technic, Prism or CurseForge, use that instance's own saves folder.)
  2. Start 1.18.2 and open the world.
  3. Minecraft will warn that the world uses EXPERIMENTAL SETTINGS.  That warning is expected.
     It is caused by the datapack in datapacks\beacon_depths, which lowers the world floor from
     y -64 to y -512 so the caverns fit.  Click Proceed.
     ** Never open the world in Safe Mode.  Safe Mode turns the datapack off, and every chunk
        you load is then saved without the depths below y -64, permanently. **
     ** Keep the datapacks folder with the world. **


PLAYING
  * The world opens in Creative on Peaceful, with commands on.  You arrive on the lake esplanade,
    facing the monument.
  * The world border is 1,500 blocks wide, centred on the monument.
  * Everything can be reached on foot: the four arched portals, the stairs, the lifts (bubble
    columns behind iron doors) and the Well.  Signs and red guide lines mark the way below ground.
  * The cornerstone on the plinth's north-east corner gives the measurements and the block count.

  Teleports (each checked: a floor below, head-room above):
    /tp @s 130 -55 0       the lake esplanade (spawn)
    /tp @s 20 -31 0        the east vestibule, inside the entrance
    /tp @s 44 -31 -34      the cornerstone
    /tp @s 0 -18 -15       the main theatre's stage
    /tp @s 0 175 8         Level A (floor 22)
    /tp @s 4 285 0         the U.S. Weather Bureau (floor 56)
    /tp @s -15 -47 12      the library (B2)
    /tp @s 0 -52 -2        the Inversion (B3)
    /tp @s -49 -52 -30     Elevator 3B (B3)
    /tp @s -116 -62 135    the asylum
    /tp @s 13 -68 9        the head of the Well of Descent
    /tp @s 12 -430 0       the cavern hall
    /tp @s 160 -430 0      the Sunken Archive
    /tp @s 70 -489 210     the Forge Below
    /tp @s 200 -55 -41     the promenade
    /tp @s 330 -55 14      the cascade


ABOUT THE BUILD
  The world was generated by script, block by block, from the architect's drawings and reports
  published in 1900.  Several rounds of hand editing in-game followed.  Before release it was
  loaded on an official 1.18.2 server; it started with no errors and kept the depths below y -64.
  It contains only vanilla blocks.

  Built October 2026.  v13 is the last public release.
