It was around midnight on March 10, 1879, and a crowd was gathering outside Madison Square Garden, back when it was called Gilmore's Garden.

And they were all there for an event, a kind of race.

And in the days leading up to it, newspapers and magazines had been stirring up the excitement.

So when the day finally arrived, people were ready.

The race was set to begin at 1 a.m. in the morning.

But the crowd had started lining up hours and hours earlier.

People were pressed together, clamoring towards the ticket booth.

The ticket sellers worked as fast as they could, but they simply could not keep up.

The crowds pressed and pressed towards the door. People started sneaking

in. People were shouting, get back, get back. Bookies were yelling too, shouting out the odds,

trying to get people to place their bets. Then, as the clock struck one, the faint sound of music

began playing inside the arena. The race had already begun. The crowd went feral.

People began throwing themselves against the arena doors. The crowd rushed forward and

finally the doors burst open and people began streaming in.

So what was this event? What kind of event were people clamoring this hard to see?

Well, in 1879, America's very favorite sport was competitive walking.

Walking in circles over America's very favorite sport was competitive walking.

Walking in circles over and over and over.

I'm Dylan Thuris, and this is Atlas of Skira,

a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

Today we are examining the phenomena that was the six-day race, when Americans literally busted down the doors to watch athletes walk in circles for days at a time.

The story of the six-day race after this. Walking as a competitive sport began with a bet.

...