Themes in American History

New York City had already begun changing from a horizontal city to a vertical one. There wasn’t enough space on Manhattan for all of its massive corporations, so they built skywards. As if the shift from trade to manufacturing wasn’t enough, lower Manhattan slowly became dominated by corporations whose influence stretched all over the world. Structures like the Mercantile Building,  Met Life building, and (in 1931) the famous Empire State Building was turning Manhattan itself into a marvel of modern engineering. Development of much of what we consider Manhattan’s skyline was in full swing in the 20’s as the economy was booming. Construction conditions were clearly more dangerouis than those we have today, primarily because 1920s builders lacked technology. This video (rather comedically), portrays some of the techniques:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn6h-RVqfZM

Comments Off on Skyscrapers in the 1920’s