Skyscrapers in New York City

Skyscraper is a very tall, multistoried building. The name appeared in the 1880s. The key technological development for the rise of skyscrapers was the passenger elevator, before that the construction of buildings, with more than five floors, was not practical. Engineering innovations, such as steel frame system, also allowed for taller structures. Unfortunately, adequate safety measures took a long time to be adopted and a large number of workers died in the process.

Most of the New York City's first skyscrapers were built along Broadway and Park Row. They began to appear around 1870. The first one depends on the criteria adopted, but a race to build increasingly tall buildings began around 1868, when the Grand Hotel was completed with six above-ground stories plus a two-story mansard roof. The construction of the 130-foot-high Equitable Life Building began in the same year and it was completed about 1869, with seven above-ground stories. But it was in 1875, with the construction of the Western Union and Tribune buildings, which surpassed the spires of the city's old churches, except Trinity Church, that the height of the buildings began to really stand out in the city's skyline.

The first skyscraper to use a steel frame system of construction was the Tower Building, at 50 Broadway, completed in 1889. The technology revolutionized the construction of skyscrapers.

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In the early 20th century a large number of skyscrapers was erected in NYC. At the time, the tallest building in the city was the Park Row Building was completed with 29 floors and 391 feet high, completed in 1899.

The 20-story Century Building at 74 Broadway was completed in 1902. The 21-story Flatiron Building, at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, was completed in the same year.

Many accidents happened. For example, the steel skeleton of the Darlington Apartment Hotel, which was under construction on the north side of 46th Street, between 5th and 6th avenues, collapsed on March 2, 1904, carrying with it nearly all the workmen engaged on the ten stories that had been raised.

The Times Building at Times Squares was built in 1904 and set a new momentum to the move northward Manhattan. The first subway line opened the same year. The 21-story steel-framed Gothic towers, Trinity and United States Realty buildings were completed in 1907 at 111 and 115 Broadway.

The Singer Building, a 47-story office building, 612 feet high, was completed in 1908 and became the tallest building in the world. It was surpassed by the Met Life Tower, completed in 1909, which was also surpassed by the 57-story Woolworth Building, completed in 1913.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s a great number of skyscrapers were erected in New York City, three of them became the tallest building in the world: 40 Wall Street, 71-story, 927-foot-tall, completed in 1930, was the tallest building for about two months and was surpassed by the Chrysler Building, 1,046 feet high, was the world's tallest building for 11 months after its completion in 1930. The iconic Empire State Building, which opened in 1931. It was the tallest building in the world until 1970, when it was surpassed by One World Trade Center, destroyed in 2001.

The new One World Trade Center, completed in 2014, is now the NYC's tallest building and the seventh-tallest building in the world.

In 2021, the tallest buildings in NYC were:

1 - One World Trade Center, 541 m (2014).

2 - Central Park Tower, 472 m (2021).

3 - 111 West 57th Street, 435 m (2021).

4 - One Vanderbilt, 427 m (2020).

5 - 432 Park Avenue, 426 m (2015).

6 - 270 Park Avenue, 423 m (2025).

7 - 30 Hudson Yards, 387 m (2019).

8 - Empire State Building, 381 (1931).