for millennia we wanted buildings that
could scrape the sky touch the heavens
but the heights we hoped to scale were
limited by the shortcomings of our
construction materials and the weakness
of the human body when steel and
concrete came on the scene in the late
19th century we finally had the tools to
build tall we lacked one key piece of
technology something we all take for
granted today
before we had skyscrapers we could only
build to approximately seven storeys
part of it was because a masonry
construction but part of it was also
because of the human limits of how far
we would climb stairs so we would climb
stairs maybe we would get to seven
storeys and we would be out of breath so
then you needed this transport system
one of the most critical developments
that allowed for skyscrapers to happen
was the Otis elevator
we take elevators for granted today but
when they first came into existence
people couldn’t believe it in the mid
1800s people did not ride on elevators
because they were unsafe elevators were
an industrial invention they moved
factory goods from Florida floor via a
rope the invention of the safety brake
in 1853 kind of turned that on its head
when that rope broke the platform with
all of the goods was immediately
prevented from falling four years later
the first passenger lift was installed
it just seemed unbelievably fantastic
tourists to America in the 1850s and 60s
went out of their minds with me
encountered an elevator there’s a story
of the Duke of Devonshire who went to
New York and he tried an elevator and
then he wrote home to his family to say
I just rode on a vertical railroad
the invention of the safety elevator
enabled the opportunity to go tall
we saw the change from the most
desirable space being at the bottom of
the building to now the floors at the
top of the building above the noise and
the smell and with the ability to have a
view and more lateral light so we see
the urbanization the trend of putting
more people in a smaller space evolving
to be a vertical space to what we see
today 150 160 200 story tall buildings
[Music]
could scrape the sky touch the heavens
but the heights we hoped to scale were
limited by the shortcomings of our
construction materials and the weakness
of the human body when steel and
concrete came on the scene in the late
19th century we finally had the tools to
build tall we lacked one key piece of
technology something we all take for
granted today
before we had skyscrapers we could only
build to approximately seven storeys
part of it was because a masonry
construction but part of it was also
because of the human limits of how far
we would climb stairs so we would climb
stairs maybe we would get to seven
storeys and we would be out of breath so
then you needed this transport system
one of the most critical developments
that allowed for skyscrapers to happen
was the Otis elevator
we take elevators for granted today but
when they first came into existence
people couldn’t believe it in the mid
1800s people did not ride on elevators
because they were unsafe elevators were
an industrial invention they moved
factory goods from Florida floor via a
rope the invention of the safety brake
in 1853 kind of turned that on its head
when that rope broke the platform with
all of the goods was immediately
prevented from falling four years later
the first passenger lift was installed
it just seemed unbelievably fantastic
tourists to America in the 1850s and 60s
went out of their minds with me
encountered an elevator there’s a story
of the Duke of Devonshire who went to
New York and he tried an elevator and
then he wrote home to his family to say
I just rode on a vertical railroad
the invention of the safety elevator
enabled the opportunity to go tall
we saw the change from the most
desirable space being at the bottom of
the building to now the floors at the
top of the building above the noise and
the smell and with the ability to have a
view and more lateral light so we see
the urbanization the trend of putting
more people in a smaller space evolving
to be a vertical space to what we see
today 150 160 200 story tall buildings
[Music]
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