History’s Race For The Sky
Now the title may lead you to believe that this is about different countries trying to reach outer space or the moon first, but I’m talking about another race for the sky. One that takes place on the ground, but is built to reach high in the sky. The “race for the sky” has been an ongoing battle for thousands of years, since men began to build structures.
Some say the race for the sky began with the Egyptians as they tried to build the biggest and the best pyramid for whichever king they were honoring. They succeeded in holding the title for tallest structure in the world for a whopping 1500 years, although various pyramids held the title during the time. The Step Pyramid of Djoser was built in 2648 B.C.E. in what is now known as Saqqara, Eqypt. It’s 205 foot tall height helped to steal the tallest title from the Anu Ziggurat in Iraq, and thus started the Eqyptians winning the race for the sky for many years after. Meidum Pyramid came next at 307 feet tall, followed by Bent Pyramid in Dahshur at 332 ft tall in 2605 B.C.E. and just 5 years later the Red Pyramid of Dahshur took the title with 344 feet! Then came one of the most well known pyramids in history, the Great Pyramid of Giza, which stood at a whopping height of 481 feet, almost 1/3 taller than the last. Was this pyramids incredible height one of the reasons for its fame? The image below shows a height comparison timeline to better show the difference in sizes of these triangular wonders.
Egyptians weren’t the only ones competing to build the biggest and the best in the world. During the Middle Ages, cathedrals became the new structure to compete with. Although thanks to over a thousand years of improved technology and skills, height wasn’t the only thing they were competing over. Cathedrals are known for their impeccable details and wood work throughout not only the inside of the cathedral, but along the roof and spires as well. Unfortunatly many of these cathedrals didn’t last long as the aforementioned pyramids. The process to build these intricate cathedrals went on for so long that many of them had issues with fires or the spires collapsing shortly after construction had completed. However, one cathedral stood tall and held the title of tallest building in the world for over 200 years, the Strasbourg Cathedral in France, which was 469 feet tall…. by this point the Great Pyramid had eroded to a height of 456 feet!
After the cathedrals held the title for tallest in the world, the Washington Monument in D.C. held the title for just 5 years before one of the most iconic structures in the world was first built — the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It dwarfed all previous buildings and structures that had held the title as it loomed at a whopping 934 feet! It held the title of tallest for the next 40 years until skyscrapers started being built in the 1930s.
The 1930s began an even more impressive version of the race for the sky that so many throughout history had been trying to win. This began the age of the skyscraper, which was well-named as they are so tall they do look to be scraping the sky! In 1930 the Chrysler Building in NYC was built and reached an unbelieveable height of 1,046 feet, more than 100 feet taller than the Eiffel Tower. It’s title of tallest was short lived, though, as the Empire State Building as built the following year and was 200 feet taller than the Chrysler Building at 1,250 feet tall. The 1950’s saw a new technology reaching these incredible heights, TV towers held the title for tallest structure in the world from 1954 through 2009, just ten years ago. What happened in 2009, you ask? Well, the Burj Khalifa was built in the United Arab Emirates and has stood as the tallest structure ever since at a whopping 2,722 feet. How long will it continue to hold this title?
