Scrolling through some random upcoming historical milestones the other day, one about the Eiffel Tower caught my eye.
‘La dame de fer’ or the ‘iron lady’ as the local Parisian population refers to it, the Eiffel Tower was officially opened 132 years ago today (March 31) just in time for the 1889 World’s Fair. For the next four decades, the near 1,000-foot wrought iron, free-standing structure would represent the tallest building on Earth. It remains easily the most recognizable building in France, and also one of the most iconic structures on our planet.
Nearly a quarter-billion people have visited it since its unveiling. Hitler ordered it destroyed (along with the rest of the city) when Nazi Germany’s Second World War occupation of Paris came to an end in 1944 – spoiler alert, his commanding general did not. Daredevils have bungee jumped off of it, and pilots have died trying to fly through its four supporting legs.
Previous feats of human vertical engineering did not even come close to the Eiffel Tower’s final height of 985 feet for thousands of years prior to its completion.
At a modest estimated height of 28 feet, the Tower of Jericho (I suppose a 28-foot tall tower was still a tower by virtue of no competition) in Palestine was deemed the tallest structure on Earth for around 4,000 years before the reign of the pyramids in Egypt. I find it fascinating that the Great Pyramid of Giza (standing around 480 feet tall) wasn’t dethroned for nearly 4,000 years itself until a series of European cathedrals took tallest structure distinctions through the Late Middle Ages.
With the exception of the Washington Monument holding the title for a brief five years prior to the Eiffel Tower’s completion, various cathedrals in England, Germany and France carried the mail until the dawn of the 20th century. The United States would reclaim tallest free-standing structure honours in 1930 with the completion of the Chrysler Building in New York, and then its cross-town rival, the Empire State Building, (1,454 feet), only one year later.
It must have really stuck in the Americans’ craw when the Soviet Union completed the Ostankino Tower in 1967 at the height of the Cold War. No doubt the Russians built the 1,772-foot communications tower in part to surpass the U.S.’s record holder. The two competed head-to-head in every other aspect of life for the better part of 40 years, and apparently building height was no different.
Our next entry requires no introduction. Canada and Toronto jumped to the global forefront with the completion of the CN Tower in 1976. For over 30 years, its 1,815 feet was unrivalled in the world, until it was finally eclipsed by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2007. What’s truly amazing to me is that when the Burj (2,722 feet) passed the CN Tower for height that year, it still had nearly 1,000 feet to go to complete the build, which was accomplished two years later.
I should now also note that an ironic aspect of me penning this column is that I’m quite afraid of heights; just thinking of making my way to the top of any of the structures I’ve listed here is making my palms sweat as I write this. I suppose I could have handled the Tower of Jericho’s 28 feet if I lived in that era long ago, but I still would have been likely to get a little dizzy.
Dubai builders are already planning another skyscraper to top the Burj Khalifa in height, but right now the frontrunner is the under-construction Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia. Builders of this proposed $1.25 billion (US) behemoth have plans for it to reach the one kilometre (3,281 feet) vertical mark for the first time in human history. However, it remains only one-third completed due to labour issues.
There appears to be no limits to how high we can reach in the foreseeable future in terms of building free-standing structures. And I’ll continue to hold a distant fascination with these literal skyscrapers, just as long as I don’t have to go up them myself.
Here comes that palm sweat again.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you back here in a fortnight.
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This is a bi-weekly opinion column; for question or comment contact Dan McNee at dmcnee@midwesternnewspapers.com.
