One of the wonders of the modern American city is that architectural marvel called the skyscraper. From New York to Miami from Chicago to Dallas, from Seattle to Los Angeles, these towers of stone and steel and glass rise majestically into the urban sky. From their upper floors, visitors can enjoy breathtaking views.
As skyscrapers transform the cities of America, some people are expressing concern (1) ___. Despite the problems, however, the tall buildings seem to be here to stay. Soon elevators will be able to reach 180 floors and more. Then people will build their modern pyramids higher and higher into the sky.
Every day visitors from all over the world line up on the ground floor of the World Trade Center in New York City. They are waiting to get on elevators that will whisk them up to the enclosed observation deck on the 107th floor of one of the Center's twin silver towers.
On calm days, visitors can take elevators from the 107th floor up to the open walkway above the 110th floor. It is 1,377 feet (413 m) above the ground. From it, the Brooklyn Bridge seems (2) ___. Cars in the streets look like tiny toys. Visitors feel the excitement that people must have felt whenever they stood on high places and looked at the world around them. But only in the last 100 years or so have we had the ability to make buildings of 25, 50, or 100 and more stories — buildings called skyscrapers.
One invention that helped make tall buildings possible was the passenger elevator. Elisha Otis first demonstrated a steam-powered elevator in New York in 1853. Before then, few buildings were more than five or six stories tall. People could not comfortably climb stairs that went higher.
New ways of building also had to be perfected (3) ___. For centuries, most tall buildings were made of stone. The higher the building, the thicker the walls of the lower floors had to be to support the weight of the upper ones. Then, in the nineteenth century, builders began using an iron frame to support the floors of new buildings. Even with this frame, the lower walls still had to support the weight of the upper ones. Finally, engineers came up with a steel frame strong enough to support both floors and walls.
According to one story, it was Major William Le Baron Jenney, a Chicago engineer and architect, who first saw (4) ___. He found out when he got angry at the squawkings of the family parrot. He banged a heavy book down on the parrot's steel wire cage and was surprised when the wires neither bent nor cracked. Jenney was the first architect to use a steel frame in a tall building. He designed the 12-story Home Insurance Company Building in Chicago in 1884. Chicago really led the way in skyscraper building. Most of central Chicago was destroyed by the Great Fire in 1871. Business leaders wanted to rebuild the city in the most modern, attractive, and profitable way possible. In the 1880s and 1890s, one skyscraper after another went up in downtown Chicago.
Probably (5) ___ of the young architects during this time was Louis Sullivan. He thought a building should "be tall ... a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation from top to bottom without a single dissenting line.”
Other architects disagreed with Sullivan. They believed that skyscrapers should borrow ideas from the Greeks, the Romans, and the Gothic cathedrals of Western Europe. Financial backers of the new skyscrapers seemed to agree with them. The more Greek columns or Gothic arches a skyscraper had, the more they thought it would impress people. The skyscraper had quickly become a sign of (6) ___ for the firms that built and owned them.
The 20-story Flatiron Building, built in 1902, was the first skyscraper in New York City. More soon followed! In 1913, the Woolworth Building reached the new height of 60 stories. With its strong vertical lines leading to a Gothic tower at the top, the Woolworth Building combined many of Louis Sullivan's ideas with past architectural styles.
Not everyone admired skyscrapers, though. City planners had already begun to criticize the tall buildings for creating sunless streets and traffic jams. In 1916, New York City passed the first Building Code Resolution. This resolution gave the city (7) ___. Other cities followed with laws of their own.
To provide enough light and air for buildings and streets, many of the new laws required that the outside walls of tall buildings be set back above certain heights. This led to the steplike look of many office buildings and apartment houses built during the 1920s and 1930s.
By 1929, American cities had 377 skyscrapers of more than 20 stories, and 188 were in New York City. The Great Depression that hit the United States in that year put an end to many new skyscrapers. But plans were too far along to stop construction for what would be for many years the tallest building in the world — the Empire State Building in New York City. Its 102 stories were completed in 1931.
There was a fresh start of skyscraper building in the late 1940s. The Depression and World War II were both over (8) ___. More office space was needed, and steel and other building materials were again easy to get.
Skyscrapers took on bold new shapes. Outer walls of tinted glass often replaced the concrete surfaces of earlier buildings. Sometimes the steel structure was exposed as part of the design. Rarely was a postwar building decorated with Gothic details like the skyscrapers of the past.
The Empire State Building remained the world's tallest until the twin towers of the World Trade Center opened in New York in 1972. But the Trade Center's triumph was short. Only two years later, the 110-story Sears Tower was completed in Chicago. It reached a height of 1,454 feet (436.2 m) — more than 100 feet (30 m) higher than the World Trade Center.
What of the future? Will skyscrapers go even higher? It's possible. Engineers are ready to build taller buildings made strong with walls that will not allow swaying in high winds. Elevator makers believe their cars can carry passengers up to at least 180 floors.
Meanwhile, some critics are against building more skyscrapers and point out serious problems with today's tall buildings. Skyscrapers provide (9) ___. These people mean more crowded streets, public transportation, and parking lots. Skyscrapers are big users of electric power. Also, skyscrapers may get in the way of television reception, block bird flyways, obstruct air traffic, and sometimes (10) ___.
Yet, throughout history, people have built tall structures — from the ancient pyramids, to the mighty bridges and towering skyscrapers of the last 100 years. In the future, despite the problems, skyscrapers will probably continue to go up higher and higher into the sky.
4. Answer the following questions:
1. What important invention helped make tall buildings possible?
2. Why did Chicago lead the way in skyscraper building?
3. Which disagreements existed between Louis Sullivan and other architects of his time?
4. How many skyscrapers had been built in American cities by 1929?
5. Why are tall buildings sometimes criticized?
5. Put these events in the chronological order:
1. The Woolworth Building reached the new height of 60 stories.
2. The 110-story Sears Tower was completed in Chicago.
3. Most of central Chicago was destroyed by the Great Fire.
4. Major William Le Baron Jenney designed the 12-story Home Insurance Company Building in Chicago.
5. The 20-story Flatiron Building was built in New York City.
6. The twin towers of the World Trade Center appeared in New York.
7. The Great Depression hit the United States and put an end to many new skyscrapers.
8. Elisha Otis first demonstrated a steam-powered elevator.
9. 102 stories of the Empire State Building were completed in New York.