High as the sky
Chicago has been building skyscrapers since the world's first was completed there in 1885. Here are some of the facts that played a part in making the Midwest's first city reach for the sky.
In October 1871, a fire burned for three days in Chicago, completely destroying the city's downtown area. Three hundred people lost their lives, nearly 18,000 buildings were burned, and 90,000 people were made homeless.
When rebuilding began, architects from all over the world came to the city to work. Within thirty years they had invented the modern skyscraper, with its steel frame, curtain walls of glass and high-speed elevators.
Before steel frames were used, the outside walls of a building had to carry its weight. The higher a building went, the heavier it became, and the thicker its walls needed to be. This made the construction of very tall buildings impossible. But with steel frames, the outside walls no longer needed to carry all the weight. The walls became 'curtains' that were hung on the sides of the strong steel skeleton – and buildings could become much taller.
Living or working in very high buildings is only sensible if you can get up and down them quickly, which is impossible if you have to use the stairs. After Elisha Otis's invention of the safety elevator in New York in 1853, elevators started becoming faster and safer, and very tall buildings became a real possibility.
English G 2000 A 6, Cornelsen Verlag, Berlin, 2002, page 40