In 1852, Elisha Graves Otis, a bed-frame manufacturer from Vermont, first addressed America's fear of falling. To demonstrate his safety lift, he took a ride in it and cut the main cable halfway up. He descended safely to media acclaim, but it took another three decades for America to muster up the courage to build vertically.In 1884-5, William Le Baron Jenney erected the Home Insurance Building in Chicago. At 10 storeys, this proto-skyscraper was a midget by contemporary standards but it brought architects up right away against the need for new technology. Skyscrapers are built differently from ordinary houses, which have load-bearing walls. In a high-rise, the walls `hang' from a girder frame.But once a beginning was made, a boom was inevitable. America, which was putting the finishing touches to the mass production machine set in motion by Henry Ford, was in need of office premises that were near warehouses, banks, stock exchanges and financial, trading and government institutions.By definition, these had to be built vertically in the business district.The first landmark skyscraper, the Empire State Building, was finished in 1931, when horse power was still the prime mover of the construction trade. Built at a cost of $41 million, it houses about 10,000 tenants and receives 25,000 visitors every day. Each year over 1.5 million people visit the building's two large observatories on the 86th and 102nd floors, to watch the clouds below them rain on the streets even further below.In an average storm, it catches about 20 lightning bolts.Among its earliest regulars were Batman, who defined himself as a creature of the high-rise night, and King Kong, who fought off biplanes while clinging to its radio mast.Even today, the New York skyline is the defining image of urban civilisation. The end of the world as we know it is heralded by the tramp of Godzilla through Manhattan's streets, or by a wing of Independence Day UFOs on the skyline.In the east, skyscrapers have been seen as icons of progress and economic well-being. Recently, Mahathir Mohammed of Malaysia was mightily miffed when a Sean Connery-starrer showed slums near his showpiece Petronas Towers, currently the tallest building in the world. The slums had been digitally inserted into the picture.Skyscrapers have redefined our idea of community and will continue to do so. J.G. Ballard, better known for Crash, investigated this process in High Rise. He suggested that with the population of a large village, the modern skyscraper needs local government of its own. Apart from internal security, it must operate internal law, dispute-redressal mechanisms and a legislature if its residents are not to descend into tribalism.The skyscraper story is far from over. Frank Lloyd Wright's 1.6-km tall building is still on the drawing board. One day, it could be on the skyline somewhere.(Next week: Slang)
