The 1908 Olympics were originally awarded to Rome but money that would have been spent on the Games was required elsewhere following the 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. London stepped in to take over and built a new 68,000-seat stadium in ten months at a cost of £40,000 at White City to host Games held over a six-month period from the end of April until the end of October. They turned out to be not only the longest Olympics in history but also certainly the wettest and probably the most content