Page 123 - 100 Events That Made History

The first

skyscraper

The high-rise building that changed

the look of our cities’ SKYLINES
Birdcage brainchild
Very tall buildings were the brainchild of
19th-century American architect William
Le Baron Jenney. After seeing his wife
put a heavy book on top of a birdcage,
Jenney saw that a METAL FRAME could
support a great weight. He wondered if
it would work for buildings.
The tragedy of
the Chicago Fire

Did you know? cleared the way Great Chicago fire
for the world’s
New York got its first
first skyscraper.
skyscraper in 1889, by
which time Chicago
Jenney got his chance to try out his
already had five.
“birdcage” idea in 1871, when large parts of
the city of Chicago burned down in a fire
and needed to be rebuilt. Within a few years,
the architect was rapidly gaining fame for
his REVOLUTIONARY tall building designs.

How it changed
Jenney studied in
Paris alongside
Gustave Eiffel, Skyscrapers have
designer of the allowed millions more
Eiffel Tower. people to live and
work in the world’s
the world
major cities.

Sky high
Work on Jenney’s first SKYSCRAPER
began in 1884. The ten-story Home
Insurance building was completed in
1885. A lot of people held their breath
waiting for the tower block to topple
over. In fact, it stayed firmly up until
1931, and hit the ground only when
demolished to make room for an even
taller building.

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