How are skyscrapers built?

 

If you’ve ever stacked your blocks up really high but found they easily fell down, you’ve probably wondered how skyscrapers manage to stand up!? Thanks to technology, materials, and special construction, architects can make super-tall buildings that stay up much longer than your stack of blocks! 

Before people could start trying to build really tall buildings, they first had to have a practical and safe way to use all of the floors of their skyscrapers! (Would you want to climb 15 flights of stairs?!) Initially, elevators were used only to transport freight items and not people, but when a passenger elevator with safe construction was invented by Elisha Graves Otis in 1853, it meant that taller buildings could finally become more useable! 

Around the same time, architects started designing buildings to be stronger and lighter, which allowed them to build up, up, up! Materials like steel, iron, and concrete were used as beams and columns to create strong inner backbones or outer skeletons for the buildings; this allowed buildings to get taller and still support their weight without their bases having to get wider on the bottom, which was previously the only way to support the height of a taller building. As technology and architecture advanced, buildings were able to get taller and taller while still withstanding forces like wind. Some of today’s tallest skyscrapers are hundreds and even thousands of feet tall! – WHOA! 

 

Many of the world’s skyscrapers are very famous buildings. Some of the most well-known skyscrapers include the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building in New York City, the Sears Tower in Chicago, the John Hancock Tower in Boston, and many more!

Have you ever seen or been inside of any of these great buildings? What are the names of some well-known skyscrapers that you’ve visited?