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Loosen that necktie - it's Friday!
Did you know that the first skyscraper in the world was the ten-storey Home Insurance Building in Chicago?
From Building Big:
Considered the first American skyscraper, the 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago was the first tall building to be supported by a metal skeleton of vertical columns and horizontal beams. Engineer William LeBaron Jenney discovered that thin pieces of steel could support a tall building as well as thick stone walls could. The steel necessary to carry Jenney's 10-story building weighed only one-third as much as a 10-story building made of heavy masonry. Since the steel skeleton supported the weight of the entire building and the exterior wall was really just a skin to keep out the weather, the Home Insurance Building was the first tall building to have many windows. Jenney's steel frame brought floor space and windows to the structure we now know as the modern skyscraper.
It has, sadly, been demolished. The Bank of America Building was built where the Home Insurance Building once stood.
Disclaimer: all images belong to their respective copyright holders.
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