1931 – Empire State Building, world's tallest building at 1,250 feet. The state of New York does not own the building. The name is similar to someone building a tall building in Kansas and naming it the Sunflower State Building. The 86th floor was hit dead on by a B-25 bomber in 1946. The top of the building was originally supposed to be a mooring mast for airships, such as the Hindenberg.
1973- World Trade Center twin towers at 1,355 feet became the tallest in the world.
1973- Sears Tower in Chicago at 1,451 feet became world's tallest.
1998 – Petronas twin towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at 1,483 feet became the world's tallest.
2004- Taipei 101 in Taiwan at 1,671 feet became world's tallest beating out the Shanghai World Financial Center at 1,614 feet, which opened this year and was never able to make a claim about world's tallest.
Under construction—Fox News reports the Burj Dubai building in the United Arab Emirates has reached 2,257 feet, 160 stories, and is getting close to half a mile high. The current height is more than 1,000 feet taller than the Empire State and 586 feet taller than the current record holder. The final height with antenna towers will put it over half a mile. Let's hope the sand holds out.
This makes me think of the Biblical tale of the Tower of Babylon.
I worked as a TV announcer in 1967-68 for KWTV in Oklahoma City, and our tower was the tallest manmade structure in the world.
Within two years of that time, our station not only lost that status, there were two other stations in our own city that were taller than ours.
It was 1,572 ft. tall. Seems pretty short in comparison to the buildings listed on this post.
I am sure the folks in Dubai went down into bedrock and then some. To support a half mile tall building, I am wondering just how far down they had to go. They have an over $4 billion budget.
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There are two towers that hold up the suspension cables and the roadway on the 6,000 foot long Brooklyn Bridge.
The tower on the Brooklyn side was anchored to bed rock.
The tower on the New York side sits on sand.
This was the 1880s and the company was losing many workers from injuries digging down to bed rock in underwater compressed air filled wood chambers. The chief engineer finally decided the sand at the depth they were digging probably had not moved in thousands of years.
So, they laid the foundation stones for the almost 300 foot tall stone tower directly on the sand.
The workers injuries was the result of the bends. Some workers suffered for the rest of their life. In those days, an injured worker was let go. The company no longer had responsibility for him. However, there were many eager volunteers that would take his job at 10 to 20 cents an hour.
Quote from: W. Gray on September 03, 2008, 08:43:08 AM
I am sure the folks in Dubai went down into bedrock and then some. To support a half mile tall building, I am wondering just how far down they had to go. They have an over $4 billion budget.
The primary structural system of Burj Dubai is reinforced concrete. Over 45,000 m3 (58,900 cu yd) of concrete, weighing more than 110,000 tonnes (120,000 ST/110,000 LT) were used to construct the concrete and steel foundation, which features 192 piles buried more than 50 m (164 ft) deep.
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=burjdubai-dubai-unitedarabemirates
David
I attended Tankship operations school in the World Trade center in the 1970s. Our group went to the top for a view and I can tell you for a boy from Howard Kansas that was an unbelievable experience. As I recall the Elevators in the lobby only went to 50 something floors up, then you got off and got on another bank of elevators to go up the next 50 or so floors to the top. It was an awesome experience just standing in front of the building and looking up to the top.
So, would you be willing to to the top of half-mile Burj Dubai when it is finished.
I probably would, but I would have to think about it first.
When the wind is blowing, there is a sway factor built into those tall buildings
I sure would have thought they would have gone deeper than 164 feet, but one would suppose they know what they were doing.
Waldo, I would have to think about it. I am guessing that the best structual Engineers and Architects were used by Dubai, but I would still have reservations about the soundness. Like you I would have thought they would have gone much deeper to establish the structure base. I hated to work the topping out of an upright silo when I was a kid, but finally got used to it but still never liked it.
I wonder who will be the first person to sky dive or soar off it. Whew!
Had not thought of that.
But whoever he might be, I suspect they will be dealt with more harshly than has been done in the past.
That French guy Alain Robert did not seem to get in much trouble when he scaled in Shanghai, and a hundred other places. He has a family including three kids. Makes one wonder where he gets his income by flying to anywhere and taking the time to study and climb a building.
I think, though, this guy may meet his fate much like the grizzly bear guy did in Alaska. He tempted fate once too often.
Waldo, thanks for this post. My dad was a Kansas boy from Wichita that worked on some of the biggest civil engineering projects in the world. Some of his projects were
Kansas Turnpike (married a Howard girl), Bridge of the Americas Panama Canal, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel ("One of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World", Dubai & King Fahd & King Khaled Airports in the Middle East.. I too thought that the depth seemed relatively shallow for such a big, tall building. I am always amazed how a topic on this forum can touch me in a personal way. Thanks, for a good nostalgic memory of my dad who passed away 27 years ago next month. Thanks for spurring the good memories and indulging me in my sappy post. If he were here he could explain why the pilings are more than enough. Also, he could explain the odds of the base jumper hitting the building before the ground. This forum always provides me with good memories. This topic really hits home with me in a good way.
David
I didn't know your father was involved in the bridge- tunnel project. I remember taking the ferry from Kiptopeke to Little Creek before it was built, and enjoyed watching its construction and have been over it many times since it opened. I love the places where we can stop and look out over the water. :D
I feel like such a whimp. I have only worked on 300-400ft building/structures. The most devistated was of course DeBruce grain elevator south west of Wichita. It is only 120' but the amount of distruction that the grain dust caused to that building was amazing. The new head house is built with out walls to use the Kansas wind to keep the dust down.
I have eaten on the 66th floor of the Sears Tower in Chicago. It sways even half way up. I saw the twin towers and the Empire state building back in the eighties. They seemed much taller from the street level than the Sears Tower. I am still amazed that there was so much going on under the ground level. Trains, Subways, steets, cableways, plumbing, electrical, and water.
How do you get the water to the top of a half mile Burj Dubai? Can you see it from space?
Either the History Channel or the Discovery Channel has a one hour presentation called Tragedy on the Plains that was made about that grain elevator.
I have watched the program several times, but it has not been on lately. It is about as a spellbinding documentary as can be made.
It is a very well done recreation of the blow out and subsequent rescue.
One of the fire trucks responding drove from Kansas City, Kansas, and and was the longest distance any fire department has ever driven a fire truck. As I recall, they had the longest ladders available.
The rescuers also had trouble getting helicopters with the correct winching equipment to make a rescue from the top and McConnell AFB did not have any so they flew a copter in from Fort Leavenworth.
Even then, the concrete was shaking so bad from the blade wash, the copters had to be waved off from rescue.
They also sent in dogs to hunt for victims. The dogs could tell the difference between a hurt victim and a dead body. It got so dangerous, they had to pull the rescuers out. On person was not found until much later when the concrete was torn down.
I probably should have mentioned that the Freedom Tower, replacing the World Trade Center, will be 1,776 feet tall, putting it at about third or fourth tallest.
It has a $2b budget.
It has three basements, which might be all parking.
Interesting list of tall structures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallest_building
There was a third building that totally collapsed at the World Trade Center.
The forty-seven story World Trade 7 collapsed seven hours after catching fire as result of one of the twin towers falling.
It is the only skyscraper that has ever collapsed purely because of fire. Conspirators have their own thought.
The fifty-two story replacement was finished two years ago.
Construction is to begin "imminently" in Saudi Arabia on the world's tallest building overlooking the Red Sea.
Kingdom Tower will rise to 3,250 feet or about 550 feet taller than the building in Dubai.
Five years is the estimated time of construction.