Skyline Throwdown: Rival Manhattan Towers Battled for the Title of Tallest
OCTOBER 14, 2008
Rivalry at the top of the world
The dizzying economic peak of the late 1920s ushered in an unprecedented building boom as the Manhattan skyline shouldered its way to the heights of international regard. A much-documented rivalry was between the architects of the Bank of Manhattan building at 40 Wall Street and the graceful deco gem that is the Chrysler Building in Midtown. Craig Severance, the architect of 40 Wall, was hell-bent to win a heated competition against his former partner, the architect of the Chrysler Building, William Van Alen, to build the world's tallest skyscraper.
The builders of 40 Wall were certain that they'd won when the building officially opened on May 26, 1930. But Van Alen had only pretended to top out his building at 925 feet. Inside the tower, he had secretly been building a 7-story, twenty-seven ton stainless steel spire which was lifted through the roof and bolted into place to give the Chrysler building a total height of 1,046 feet, beating its rival by 119 feet, and making it the world's tallest (at the time) and the world's first building to rise above 1,000 feet.
In true New York fashion. it wasn't top dog for long: The Empire State Building nosed higher less than nine months later.
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