The Empire State, the Woolworth, the Flatiron. The mere mention of these buildings brings
to mind the golden age of the skyscraper in New York.
Each is a "skyscraper" as defined by Louis Sullivan. He wrote "The force
and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and the pride of exaltation must be in it.
It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exaltation that from
bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line."
A true revolution in construction occurred in the very early part of the twentieth
century. Two revolutions actually: the invention of the steel skeleton frame and the
invention of the elevator.
No longer were building heights to be limited by their load bearing walls. And no longer
was the push upward limited by the fact that human beings got very grumpy if they had to
climb more than six flights of stairs.
These two innovations, taken together, set the stage for the creation of Manhattan's
world-renowned skyline.
The race was on to see who could build the biggest, the tallest and the most fantastic of
towers. The record of the Flatiron was topped by the Metropolitan Life Tower in 1909. That
record was beaten by the Woolworth Building in 1913, the Chrysler Building in 1930 and
then the Empire State Building in 1931.
It seemed that the race would never end and that indeed, the sky was the limit. The
beginning of the depression in 1929 forced an abrupt end to this race for the sky. The
Empire State Building, completed in 1931, held the title of tallest for over 40 years,
until the first tower of the World Trade Center was completed in 1972.
But that golden age, during the early party of the twentieth century, that many of
Manhattan's best buildings were born. Use the menu in the upper-right hand corner to take
a tour of some of these magnificent wonders of architecture.
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