Tools & manufacturing · 1885

Steel-frame skyscraper

A metal skeleton carries the walls, and buildings climb.

William Le Baron Jenney's Home Insurance Building in Chicago, completed in 1885, used an iron and steel frame to rise 10 stories. Frame construction freed height from wall thickness.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Bessemer steel 1856
Safety elevator 1853

What it led to 1

Burj Khalifa 2010

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

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