After World War I, the idea of building skyscrapers had spread from Chicago and New York City to every major city in the United states, Canada and even London, England.
London is not famous for skyscrapers, but several buildings of more than 200 feet in height were built in the 1880s and 1890s. This early start came to a crashing halt after Queen Victoria expressed displeasure that the new buildings were obscuring her view of the church steeples in London, and a law was passed that would preserve the clock tower of the Parliament Buildings and the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral as the champions of the London skyline until well into the 1960s.
By the late 1920s, other sizable buildings in New York City included the 615-foot New York Life Building and Bankers Trust Building and the Equitable Building, both 538 feet tall.
Chicago finally started building larger structures, and had several buildings taller than 500 feet in height by 1930. This would likely have continued had Chicago City Council not passed a bylaw later in the 1930s limiting the height of new buildings in the Windy City to no more than 400 feet.
Detroit boasted the 664-foot Penobscot Building, which was the tallest building outside of New York City when it opened in 1928. Columbus, Ohio had the 555-foot Leveque Building. The 496-foot-tall Custom House Tower was built in Boston, Massachusetts, and the tallest building in the British Empire was opened in 1930 in Toronto – the 476-foot Commerce Court North.
By the time the stock market crashed in 1929, there were 34 structures taller than 500 feet in the world. Nineteen of these were in New York City alone, with Chicago following with seven. No other city with such a structure had more than one.
40 Wall Street
AKA Bank of Manhattan Trust Building, Trump Building (since 1996)
Location: New York City
Completed: 1930
Height: 927 feet (70 storeys)
Claim to Fame: 40 Wall Street is perhaps the greatest ‘also-ran’ in skyscraper history. Having become the first building to dethrone the Woolworth Building after a reign at the top lasting 17 years, 40 Wall Street would hold the title for the shortest period of all historic tallest buildings. The building was completed in April 1930, only to be surpassed in height six weeks later.
Its height of 927 feet was just 57 feet shorter than the height of the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower, and was decided on just for a lark. In a moment of “inspiration” the builders took the 792-foot height of the Woolworth Building and just flipped two digits around.
I kid you not.
40 Wall Street lost out in another way. As it is located in the middle of its block rather than on the corner of two streets like other major skyscrapers in New York, much of its visual impact is lost to surrounding structures and it can actually go un-noticed at street level.
(Only in New York could a building over 900 feet tall “blend in" and go unnoticed.)
Still, 40 Wall Street was the first of the giant office towers of New York City that incorporated some Art Deco style along with Gothic elements rather than taking its design inspiration strictly from cathedrals or Renaissance structures in Europe.
Status: A US Coast Guard Plane crashed into 40 Wall Street in 1946, killing five people. This makes the building one of five in New York City that have been hit by an airplane.
Donald Trump bought the building in 1996 and plastered his name on it. Donald Trump is a very naughty man.