At the 1853 World’s Fair, in New York’s Crystal Palace, 40-year-old Elisha Otis stood upon a platform 10 meters in the air and ordered axemen to cut the only rope that was suspending it. In front of an amazed crowd the rope was severed, but the platform only fell a few inches before it came to a stop. This was the first public demonstration of his safety locking mechanism and the birth of the Otis elevator company. Elevators based on this safety feature have essentially made tall buildings possible and therefore shaped our modern cities. Today, New York City has more than 6,000 buildings over 10 stories tall, and of those buildings, the average number of stories is 18.7. The One World Trade Center, the tallest building in New York, has a whopping 104 stories, while the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, has an incredible 163 floors. These structures and the skylines […]