History of Skyscrapers

Have you ever looked out your car window to see the towers of a big city stretching up, up almost impossibly high like jagged teeth against the sky? It's hard to imagine how people could build these massive buildings, many over a thousand feet high, but even harder to imagine a modern city without them. Why do people build them? How can they be so tall but still stand? And who built the first skyscrapers? You might think skyscrapers are something people invented only recently, but we actually have to go further back in time than you might think to find the very first tall buildings. Not just a hundred years or two or even three hundred, we have to go back over 2,000 years to find the first high-rise buildings. For about 4,000 years in fact, the tallest human-built structures in the world were the pyramids of Giza in Egypt. The tallest was about 480 feet tall, but of course people didn't live in pyramids or spend time in them, at least not while they were alive. They were tombs where Egyptian pharaohs were buried, and though it took great skill in planning to build them, they also don't look quite like what we'd think of as a skyscraper, tall and skinny buildings. If you'd like to learn more about pyramids, be sure to check out the Bedtime History episode about the pyramids of Egypt. Some of the first buildings that would remind you of a skyscraper were built in ancient Rome. By about 2,000 years ago, Rome had taken over territories and kingdoms all around the Mediterranean Sea. People from these places flocked to Rome to try and make their fortunes. These people needed places to live, but most couldn't afford their own house. Instead, Romans built apartment buildings called insulae and rented space to residents of the city. Most insulae were only three stories tall, but a few were much taller. One was seven stories. This was extremely tall for a building in the ancient world, and some ancient writers thought it showed the hubris, or a dangerously high level of pride and confidence, to build something so close to the home of the gods. Sadly, that accusation proved correct in many cases, though not because the gods were angry about humans moving into their neighborhood. Many builders did not do a good job of making sure these apartments were safe for people to live in, and many collapsed or caught fire as a result. Several Roman emperors made laws saying these apartments could only be a certain height, but very often the laws weren't obeyed. Even the tallest insulae buildings were nowhere near as tall as some of today's record-holding buildings, but they were still pretty impressive. But Rome probably wasn't home to the earliest or most impressive high-rise buildings. That honor goes to the Middle Eastern country of Yemen. In the 3rd century BCE, the kings of an ancient kingdom called Himyar built a grand towering palace in what is now the city of Sanaa. The palace, called Gumdan Palace, was made of mud, brick, and lavishly decorated in black, green, white, and red. No one is sure exactly how tall it stood, since it's no longer standing today, but it was probably between 6 and 10 stories, though some writers claimed it was 20 stories high. Four bronze lions watched over the land from the top corners of the tower, roaring fiercely when the wind blew through them. Gumdan Palace wasn't the only tall building in the area, though. The older parts of the city of Sanaa is full of mud-brick apartments, some standing 100 feet high. They're perfectly designed for the desert region, with beautiful carved screens on the top windows to let in the breeze, and rooftop terraces where people can enjoy the evening or even sleep out on a hot night. People still live in these buildings today. These examples of high-rise design were built hundreds of years ago, at least. I say at least because no one's really sure how old they are. The mud bricks have to be patched constantly, which means many parts of the building are newer. But buildings like these are a traditional style of architecture that dates back to the Middle Ages. For the next skyscraper building boom, we need to fast forward to the city of Chicago in the 19th century. We'll start on a warm, windy October night in 1871. Chicago had seen very little rain in the past month. In these dry, warm, windy conditions, a fire broke out in a barn. No one knows exactly how it started. The young city was built mostly of wood, and people tried desperately to douse the flames. But the wind worked against them, blowing flames and embers into new areas. Block after block was consumed by the fire over the next few days. In the end, the Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed over three square miles right in the middle of the city. Tens of thousands of residents were left without homes. But the city would survive. Chicago would rebuild, and it would rebuild better than before. The city made new laws to make sure buildings were safe, and new projects didn't use wood as their main building material. Instead, they used stone, brick, and a new metal they had recently become cheaper and easier to get, called steel. Steel is very strong. There's a reason Superman is called the Man of Steel. And it's also very light. Because of these qualities, steel can be used to construct very tall buildings. In the aftermath of the Chicago Fire, the home insurance company hired an architect named William LeBaron Jenney to design and build a new headquarters for them in the city. Jenney wanted to do a good job designing this building to be safe, but also wanted it to be impressive. Supposedly one day, Jenney was having a tough time figuring out how to make his building both strong and tall. He was getting tired and frustrated, so he decided to go home for the evening. When Jenney got home, his wife was reading a large book. She sat it down on a wire birdcage when he came in. This gave Jenney the burst of inspiration he needed. If a simple wire birdcage was strong enough to hold a heavy book, maybe he could make a similar steel cage to frame his building. The frame of a building is like the skeleton. It holds up every other part of the structure. Jenney was confident his design would work, but the city government was less sure. Not like the ancient Rome apartments, the city even stopped construction to inspect the design and building to make sure it was safe. Fortunately it was, and they allowed the construction to continue. Standing 10 stories and 138 feet high, the home insurance building would become known as the world's first modern skyscraper. This might not sound very tall, but it was a giant for the time. It wasn't just the height. The pyramids were taller, and some churches had bell towers or steeples that were taller. But Jenney's building was different. Even the very top floors were meant to be used by people on a daily basis. The steel frame, along with new features like fast elevators, reliable plumbing, and the ability to withstand strong winds, made the entire building strong, safe, and comfortable enough for people to spend a lot of time in. This made it different from other tall structures of the time, and different from the older skyscrapers of the ancient and medieval world. But the world didn't stand still for long to marvel at the home insurance building. Jenney's accomplishment set off a frenzy of high-rise buildings in many cities around the country and world. By the middle of the 20th century, New York would become known for its spectacular skyline, with high-rises of different heights and shapes cropping up against the night sky like a strange steel and glass garden. The Empire State Building, completed in 1931, became the world's tallest building and kept the record longer than any other modern skyscraper for almost 40 years. It became one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city, and a setting for countless TV shows and movies. The record for the tallest building has changed hands several times in the last century and a half. Right now, Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai holds the title, standing 2,722 feet high. That's over a mile! It contains a hotel, apartments, office space, and the world's highest restaurant. But at some point, even Burj Khalifa may be dethroned as the tallest building in the world. The strongest competitor is another tower currently under construction in Saudi Arabia. Jeddah Tower will stand one kilometer high if all goes as planned, but it's been under construction for almost 10 years and is nowhere near complete. Why do you think people like to build tall buildings? Is it the challenge, a need to show off, or to create something new, beautiful, and unique? Modern skyscrapers are not only designed to be strong, but often have unique or whimsical elements. Some look like they're twisting or waving against the sky. Some are built in sets of two or more and have bridges, or in one case, a swimming pool connecting them. A tower in San Francisco even looks like a stretched-up pyramid, maybe to remind us of ancient Egyptians and just how long we've been reaching toward the heavens with our buildings. If you were going to design a skyscraper, what special features would you put on it? How would you make it unlike any other building in the world, or your special contribution to the world?