Bridge

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This article is about the structure. For other uses, see Bridge (disambiguation).

The Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge in Japan, the world's longest suspension span.

The Si-o-se Pol bridge over Zayandeh River is the epitome of Safavid dynasty (1502–1722)
bridge design. Esfahan, Iran

A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or
road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle. Designs of bridges vary
depending on the function of the bridge, the nature of the terrain where the bridge is
constructed, the material used to make it and the funds available to build it.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Etymology
 2 History
 3 Types of bridges
o 3.1 Beam bridges
o 3.2 Cantilever bridges
o 3.3 Arch bridges
o 3.4 Suspension bridges
o 3.5 Cable-stayed bridges
o 3.6 Movable bridges
 o 3.7 Double-decked bridges
o 3.8 By use
 4 Structure
 5 Efficiency
 6 Other functions
 7 Bridge failures
 8 Visual index
 9 See also
 10 References
 11 External links

[edit] Etymology
The Oxford English Dictionary traces the origin of the word bridge to an Old English word
brycg, of the same meaning, derived from a hypothetical Proto-Germanic root brugjō. There
are cognates in other Germanic languages.

[edit] History

Bamboo bridge over the Serayu River in Java, Indonesia (ca.1910-40)

The Arkadiko Bridge in Greece (13th century BC), one of the oldest arch bridges in existence
An English 18th century example of a bridge in the Palladian style, with shops on the span:
Pulteney Bridge, Bath

Roman bridge of Córdoba, Spain, built in the 1st century BC.[1]

A log bridge in the French Alps near Vallorcine.

A Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) Chinese miniature model of two residential towers
joined by a bridge
One of the most famous historical bridges in the world: Ponte Vecchio

Lomonosov Bridge in St. Petersburg

Stone arch bridge in Shaharah, Yemen

Primitive suspension bridge over the River Astore

Continuous under-deck truss bridge

Over-deck truss bridge with steel girders and wooden carriageway

"Metrobridge" Vorobyovy Gory (ru:Метромост) double-deck bridge in Moscow carries the

Moscow Metro

Old Bridge in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad, Bosnia and Herzegovina

The first bridges were made by nature itself — as simple as a log fallen across a stream or
stones in the river. The first bridges made by humans were probably spans of cut wooden
logs or planks and eventually stones, using a simple support and crossbeam arrangement.
Some early Americans used trees or bamboo poles to cross small caverns or wells to get from
one place to another. A common form of lashing sticks, logs, and deciduous branches
together involved the use of long reeds or other harvested fibers woven together to form a
connective rope capable of binding and holding together the materials used in early bridges.

The Arkadiko Bridge is one of four Mycenaean corbel arch bridges part of a former network
of roads, designed to accommodate chariots, between Tiryns to Epidauros in the
Peloponnese, in Greece. Dating to the Greek Bronze Age (13th century BC), it is one of the
oldest arch bridges still in existence and use. Several intact arched stone bridges from the
Hellenistic era can be found in the Peloponnese in southern Greece[2]

The greatest bridge builders of antiquity were the ancient Romans.[3] The Romans built arch
bridges and aqueducts that could stand in conditions that would damage or destroy earlier
designs. Some stand today.[4] An example is the Alcántara Bridge, built over the river Tagus,
in Spain. The Romans also used cement, which reduced the variation of strength found in
natural stone.[5] One type of cement, called pozzolana, consisted of water, lime, sand, and
volcanic rock. Brick and mortar bridges were built after the Roman era, as the technology for
cement was lost then later rediscovered.

The Arthashastra of Kautilya mentions the construction of dams and bridges.[6] A Mauryan
bridge near Girnar was surveyed by James Princep.[7] The bridge was swept away during a
flood, and later repaired by Puspagupta, the chief architect of emperor Chandragupta I.[7] The
bridge also fell under the care of the Yavana Tushaspa, and the Satrap Rudra Daman.[7] The
use of stronger bridges using plaited bamboo and iron chain was visible in India by about the
4th century.[8] A number of bridges, both for military and commercial purposes, were
constructed by the Mughal administration in India.[9]

Although large Chinese bridges of wooden construction existed at the time of the Warring
States, the oldest surviving stone bridge in China is the Zhaozhou Bridge, built from 595 to
605 AD during the Sui Dynasty. This bridge is also historically significant as it is the world's
oldest open-spandrel stone segmental arch bridge. European segmental arch bridges date back
to at least the Alconétar Bridge (approximately 2nd century AD), while the enormous Roman
era Trajan's Bridge (105 AD) featured open-spandrel segmental arches in wooden
construction.

Rope bridges, a simple type of suspension bridge, were used by the Inca civilization in the
Andes mountains of South America, just prior to European colonization in the 16th century.

During the 18th century there were many innovations in the design of timber bridges by Hans
Ulrich, Johannes Grubenmann, and others. The first book on bridge engineering was written
by Hubert Gautier in 1716. A major breakthrough in bridge technology came with the
erection of the Iron Bridge in Coalbrookdale, England in 1779. It used cast iron for the first
time as arches to cross the river Severn.

With the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, truss systems of wrought iron were
developed for larger bridges, but iron did not have the tensile strength to support large loads.
With the advent of steel, which has a high tensile strength, much larger bridges were built,
many using the ideas of Gustave Eiffel.
In 1927 welding pioneer Stefan Bryła designed the first welded road bridge in the world,
which was later built across the river Słudwia Maurzyce near Łowicz, Poland in 1929. In
1995, the American Welding Society presented the Historic Welded Structure Award for the
bridge to Poland.[10]

[edit] Types of bridges

There are six main types of bridges: beam bridges, cantilever bridges, arch bridges,
suspension bridges, cable-stayed bridges and truss bridges.

[edit] Beam bridges

Beam bridges are horizontal beams supported at each end by abutments, hence their structural
name of simply supported. When there is more than one span the intermediate supports are
known as piers. The earliest beam bridges were simple logs that sat across streams and
similar simple structures. In modern times, beam bridges are large box steel girder bridges.
Weight on top of the beam pushes straight down on the abutments at either end of the bridge.
[11]
They are made up mostly of wood or metal. Beam bridge spans typically do not exceed
250 feet (76 m) long, as the strength of a span decreases with increased length. However, the
main span of the Rio-Niteroi Bridge, a box girder bridge, is 300 metres (980 ft). The The
world's longest beam bridge is Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in southern Louisiana in the
United States, at 23.83 miles (38.35 km), with individual spans of 56 feet (17 m).[12]

[edit] Cantilever bridges

Cantilever bridges are built using cantilevers—horizontal beams supported on only one end.
Most cantilever bridges use a pair of continuous spans that extend from opposite sides of the
supporting piers to meet at the center of the obstacle the bridge crosses. Cantilever bridges
are constructed using much the same materials & techniques as beam bridges. The difference
comes in the action of the forces through the bridge. The largest cantilever bridge is the 549-
metre (1,801 ft) Quebec Bridge in Quebec, Canada.

[edit] Arch bridges

Arch bridges have abutments at each end. The earliest known arch bridges were built by the
Greeks, and include the Arkadiko Bridge. The weight of the bridge is thrust into the
abutments at either side. Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is currently building the Sheikh
Rashid bin Saeed Crossing, which is scheduled for completion in 2012. When completed, it
will be the largest arch bridge in the world.[13]

[edit] Suspension bridges

Suspension bridges are suspended from cables. The earliest suspension bridges were made of
ropes or vines covered with pieces of bamboo. In modern bridges, the cables hang from
towers that are attached to caissons or cofferdams. The caissons or cofferdams are implanted
deep into the floor of a lake or river. The longest suspension bridge in the world is the 12,826
feet (3,909 m) Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan.[14] See simple suspension bridge, stressed
ribbon bridge, underspanned suspension bridge, suspended-deck suspension bridge, and self-
anchored suspension bridge.
Arch of suspension bridge

[edit] Cable-stayed bridges

Cable-stayed bridges, like suspension bridges, are held up by cables. However, in a cable-
stayed bridge, less cable is required and the towers holding the cables are proportionately
shorter.[15] The first known cable-stayed bridge was designed in 1784 by C.T. Loescher.[16]
The longest cable-stayed bridge is the Sutong Bridge over the Yangtze River in China.

[edit] Movable bridges

Movable bridges are designed to move out of the way of boats or other kinds of traffic, which
would otherwise be too tall to fit. These are generally electrically powered.

[edit] Double-decked bridges

Double-decked or double-decker bridges have two levels, such as the San Francisco –
Oakland Bay Bridge, with two road levels. Tsing Ma Bridge and Kap Shui Mun Bridge in
Hong Kong have six lanes on their upper decks, and on their lower decks there are two lanes
and a pair of tracks for MTR metro trains. Likewise, in Toronto, the Prince Edward Viaduct
has five lanes of motor traffic, bicycle lanes, and sidewalks on its upper deck; and a pair of
tracks for the Bloor–Danforth subway line. Some double-decker bridges only use one level
for street traffic; the Washington Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis reserves its lower level for
automobile traffic and its upper level for pedestrian and bicycle traffic (predominantly
students at the University of Minnesota).

Robert Stephenson's High Level Bridge across the River Tyne in Newcastle upon Tyne,
completed in 1849, is an early example of a double-deck bridge. The upper level carries a
railway, and the lower level is used for road traffic. Another example is Craigavon Bridge in
Derry, Northern Ireland. The Oresund Bridge between Copenhagen and Malmö consists of a
four-lane highway on the upper level and a pair of railway tracks at the lower level.

The George Washington Bridge between New Jersey and New York has two roadway levels.
It was built with only the upper roadway as traffic demands did not require more capacity. A
truss work between the roadway levels provides stiffness to the roadways and reduced
movement of the upper level when installed. Tower Bridge is different example of a double-
decker bridge, with the central section consisting of a low level bascule span and a high level
footbridge.
Old Yamuna Bridge (Delhi) or Bridge No. 249 in technical railway parlance, was constructed
in 1866 by the East India Railway at a cost of £16,16,335. It was built with a total length of
2,640 feet (800 m) and consisted of 12 spans of 202.5 feet (61.7 m) each. With the
completion of this bridge, two principal cities of North India, Kolkata and Delhi, were
connected by the railways; this being the last link of the trunk line on this route. In 1913, this
was converted into a double line by adding down line girders of 12 spans of 202 feet (62 m)
each and 2 end spans of 42 feet (13 m) to the bridge. For the movement of road traffic, two
road bridges were provided below the lines. The entry of trains into Delhi Junction Railway
station, in such close proximity to the Red Fort, never ceases to impress the rail traveler,[citation
needed]
reminding all that after the Uprising of 1857, Delhi was a fortified city. The old Yamuna
Bridge has an identical twin, a bridge further downstream at Naini on the Allahabad —
Mughalsarai section of the now North Central Railways.

[edit] By use

A bridge is designed for trains, pedestrian or road traffic, a pipeline or waterway for water
transport or barge traffic. An aqueduct is a bridge that carries water, resembling a viaduct,
which is a bridge that connects points of equal height. A road-rail bridge carries both road
and rail traffic.

Bridges are subject to unplanned uses as well. The areas underneath some bridges have
become makeshift shelters and homes to homeless people, and the undersides of bridges all
around the world are spots of prevalent graffiti. Some bridges attract people attempting
suicide, and become known as suicide bridges.

To create a beautiful image, some bridges are built much taller than necessary. This type,
often found in east-Asian style gardens, is called a Moon bridge, evoking a rising full moon.
Other garden bridges may cross only a dry bed of stream washed pebbles, intended only to
convey an impression of a stream. Often in palaces a bridge will be built over an artificial
waterway as symbolic of a passage to an important place or state of mind. A set of five
bridges cross a sinuous waterway in an important courtyard of the Forbidden City in Beijing,
the People's Republic of China. The central bridge was reserved exclusively for the use of the
Emperor, Empress, and their attendants.

[edit] Structure
Bridges may be classified by how the forces of tension, compression, bending, torsion and
shear are distributed through their structure. Most bridges will employ all of the principal
forces to some degree, but only a few will predominate. The separation of forces may be
quite clear. In a suspension or cable-stayed span, the elements in tension are distinct in shape
and placement. In other cases the forces may be distributed among a large number of
members, as in a truss, or not clearly discernible to a casual observer as in a box beam.
Bridges can also be classified by their lineage, which is shown as the vertical axis on the
diagram.[clarification needed]

[edit] Efficiency
A bridge's structural efficiency is the ratio of load carried to bridge mass, given a specific set
of material types. In one common challenge students are divided into groups and given a
quantity of wood sticks, a distance to span, and glue, and then asked to construct a bridge that
will be tested to destruction by the progressive addition of load at the center of the span. The
bridge taking the greatest load is by this test the most structurally efficient. A more refined
measure for this exercise is to weigh the completed bridge rather than measure against a fixed
quantity of materials provided and determine the multiple of this weight that the bridge can
carry, a test that emphasizes economy of materials and efficient glue joints (see balsa wood
bridge).

A bridge's economic efficiency will be site and traffic dependent, the ratio of savings by
having a bridge (instead of, for example, a ferry, or a longer road route) compared to its cost.
The lifetime cost is composed of materials, labor, machinery, engineering, cost of money,
insurance, maintenance, refurbishment, and ultimately, demolition and associated disposal,
recycling, and replacement, less the value of scrap and reuse of components. Bridges
employing only compression are relatively inefficient structurally, but may be highly cost
efficient where suitable materials are available near the site and the cost of labor is low. For
medium spans, trusses or box beams are usually most economical, while in some cases, the
appearance of the bridge may be more important than its cost efficiency. The longest spans
usually require suspension bridges.

Juscelino Kubitschek bridge in Brasília, Brazil

[edit] Other functions

Some bridges accommodate other purposes, such as the tower of Nový Most bridge in
Bratislava, which features a restaurant. Other suspension bridge towers carry transmission
antennas.

A bridge can carry overhead power lines as does the Storstrøm Bridge.

Costs and cost overruns frequently occur in bridge construction. Flyvbjerg et al. (2003) found
the average cost overrun in bridge building is 34%.[17]

In railway parlance, an overbridge is a bridge crossing over the course of the railway. In
contrast, an underbridge allows passage under the line.

[edit] Bridge failures

See also: List of bridge failures
The failure of bridges is of special concern for structural engineers in trying to learn lessons
vital to bridge design, construction and maintenance. The failure of bridges first assumed
national interest during the Victorian era when many new designs were being built, often
using new materials.

In the United States, the National Bridge Inventory tracks the structural evaluations of all
bridges, including designation as "structurally deficient" and "functionally obsolete".

[edit] Visual index

See also: List of bridge types

[edit] See also

 Architectural structure
 Bridge to Nowhere (disambiguation)
 Cost overrun in bridge construction
 Footbridge
 Landscape architecture
 List of bridge disasters
 Megaproject
 Overpass
 Oxford BT Centre for Major Programme Management
 Sea bridge
 BS 5400, a British Standard for steel, concrete and composite bridges
 contrast with tunnel

[edit] References
Notes

1. ^ Roman Bridge in Cordoba ( 1st century B.C.)

2. ^ T.H. Nielsen and J. Roy. Defining ancient Arkadia: symposium April 1–4, 1998. Kgl. Danske
Videnskabernes Selska, 1998. p. 253.

The Tech To Make Buildings Earthquake—

and Tsunami—Resistant
The double disaster of a giant earthquake and tsunami today in Japan has caused a mercifully
low death toll so far. That's thanks in part to the country's tradition of strong building codes and
trying out new disaster-proofing systems. In years to come, those systems could make new
buildings in Japan (and the United States) more disaster-resistant than ever before.
BY ANDREW MOSEMAN
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A factory building collapsed in Sukagawa city in northern Japan on March 11, 2011.
Fukushima Minpo/AFP/Getty Images

A.A.A
March 11, 2011 5:30 PM TEXT SIZE:
Last fall, PM's annual Breakthrough Awards featured Greg Deierlein and Jerome Hajjar,
two engineers who devised a clever way for a building to collapse in on itself—but not fall over—
during the rumblings of a major earthquake. To test it out, Deierlein and Hajjar took their system
to Miki City, Japan, where the world's largest earthquake simulator resides. But today, what
Japan felt was no simulation—a huge 8.9 earthquake hammered the island country and
launched tsunamis that destroyed buildings on the Japanese coast and killed people in the
hundreds at least.

Unfortunately, Hajjar tells PM today, his and other disaster-proofing technologies are so new that
they're still in testing or in very few buildings. But soon, he says, Japan—boasting its traditions of
smart building and preparedness that might have saved many lives today—could begin
widespread use of these new technologies that to help structures withstand even these largest
natural disasters. "There are some progressive practitioners both in the United States and Japan
who have been trying out variations on this simultaneously with us," he says. In Japan, Hajjar
says, researchers are working on two or three systems that share a lot with his Breakthrough
Award-winning design. "They've been exploring this not only for engineered structures, but also
non-engineered structures—meaning houses."

For example, he says, Japanese industrial giant Nippon Steel is researching fuses that resemble
what he uses—structural connectors that absorb the stress of an earthquake. "They use those to
connect different pieces of wood frame construction, in order to focus any damage in those
structures into those fuses." In fact, Hajjar says, Nippon recently displayed those fuses in its
showroom in Chiba, Japan, "one of the places that got a pretty hard shake today." He emailed
the folks at Nippon this morning to see how they were doing, but hadn't heard back when he
spoke with PM.

Because of its precarious location in an earthquake-prone zone, Japan has absorbed disaster
readiness into its culture, Hajjar says—and into its building codes. "They're shaking almost daily,"
University of California, Davis engineering professor Boris Jermic says. "So they not only need
good codes, they need good enforcement." Japan has that, he says. But while the country has
been proactive in its safety demands for new buildings, retrofitting older ones is another matter.
Like American private homes, Hajjar says, when Japanese buildings aren't required to be
retrofitted they suffer the same kind of disaster vulnerability.

However, Hajjar says, while earthquake-resistant designs show plenty of promise, there's not a
lot you can do to stave off the rage of flooding water. There's a tiny community of researchers in
the U.S. and around the world who are trying to make buildings tsunami-resistant, he says, but
those the scientists have come up with some solid ideas. Honolulu, Hawaii, for instance, has
experimented with designs that include a "sacrificial first floor," in which water will run right
through it without compromising the building's structural integrity. During today's tsunami
warning, some Hawaiian buildings enacted vertical evacuation—meaning the occupants went
upward in the building to avoid the floodwaters in the bottom. Tsunami scientists at Oregon State
University are also moving on up: They plan to build a test structure standing on pillars in
Cannon Beach, Ore., which would become both the town's city hall and an elevated refuge from
tsunami waters.

But the true structural danger of a tsunami, according to Jermic, is that the extreme floodwaters
are "going to start scouring the foundation." The only defense is to be prepared and protect
foundations with concrete or boulders. If a tsunami's destructive power reaches the foundation
material of a building or a bridge, he says, "that structure is going to fail."

Read more: Earthquake and Tsunami Resistant Buildings - Japan 8.9 Magnitude Earthquake - Popular
Mechanics

Architecture of New York City

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Jump to: navigation, search
The Empire State Building (foreground) and Chrysler Building, are some of the finest
examples of Art Deco architecture

A building form closely associated with New York City is the skyscraper which has
controversially shifted many commercial and residential districts from low-rise to high-rise.
Surrounded mostly by water, the city has amassed one of the largest collection of skyscrapers
in the world.[1]

New York has architecturally significant buildings in a wide range of styles. These include
the Woolworth Building (1913), an early Gothic revival skyscraper with large-scale gothic
architectural detail. The 1916 Zoning Resolution required setback in new buildings, and
restricted towers to a percentage of the lot size, to allow sunlight to reach the streets below.[2]
The Art Deco design of the Chrysler Building (1930), with its tapered top and steel spire,
reflected the zoning requirements. The building is considered by many historians and
architects to be New York's finest, with its distinctive ornamentation such as replicas of the
1928 Chrysler eagle hood ornaments and V-shaped lighting inserts capped by a steel spire at
the tower's crown.[3] An early influential example of the international style in the United
States is the Seagram Building (1957), distinctive for its facade using visible bronze-toned I-
beams to evoke the building's structure. The Condé Nast Building (2000) is an important
example of green design in American skyscrapers.[4]

The character of New York's large residential districts is often defined by the elegant
brownstone rowhouses, townhouses, and shabby tenements that were built during a period of
rapid expansion from 1870 to 1930.[5] Stone and brick became the city's building materials of
choice after the construction of wood-frame houses was limited in the aftermath of the Great
Fire of 1835.[6][7] Unlike Paris, which for centuries was built from its own limestone bedrock,
New York has always drawn its building stone from a far-flung network of quarries and its
stone buildings have a variety of textures and hues.[8] A distinctive feature of many of the
city's buildings is the presence of wooden roof-mounted water towers. In the 19th century,
the city required their installation on buildings higher than six stories to prevent the need for
excessively high water pressures at lower elevations, which could burst municipal water
pipes.[9] Garden apartments became popular during the 1920s in outlying areas, including
Jackson Heights in Queens, which became more accessible with expansion of the subway.[10]

Contents
[hide]

 1 Skyscrapers
o 1.1 Tallest buildings
 2 Residential architecture
 3 Street grid
 4 Gallery
 5 See also
 6 References
 7 Further reading
 8 External links

[edit] Skyscrapers

Panoramic view of Manhattan island from the Empire State Building. New Jersey can be seen
to the right, and Queens to the left.

Panorama of the Manhattan skyline as seen looking eastward from Hoboken, New Jersey.
Highlights from left to right include the George Washington Bridge, Riverside Church, the
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the spire of the Chrysler Building, the Empire State
Building, the World Financial Center, and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
Midtown Manhattan with a significantly larger skyline than Lower Manhattan, has many
more modern skyscrapers.

New York has two separate concentrations of high-rise buildings: Midtown Manhattan and
Lower Manhattan, each with its own uniquely recognizable skyline. Midtown Manhattan, the
largest central business district in the world, is home to such notable buildings as the Empire
State Building, the Chrysler Building, Citigroup Center and Rockefeller Center. Lower
Manhattan comprises the third largest central business district in the United States (after
Midtown and Chicago's Loop). Lower Manhattan was characterized by the omnipresence of
the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center from its completion in 1973 until its destruction
in the September 11 attacks, 2001.

The Lower Manhattan skyline shortly before 9/11. It has a significantly smaller skyline than
Midtown Manhattan.

In the first decade of the 21st century, Lower Manhattan saw rapid reconstruction to include
the new One World Trade Center. The Downtown skyline received new designs from such
architects as Santiago Calatrava and Frank Gehry. Goldman Sachs is building a 225 meter
(750 feet) tall, 43 floor building across the street from the World Trade Center site.

New York City has a long history of tall buildings. It has been home to 10 buildings that have
held the world's tallest fully habitable building title at some point in history, although half
have since been demolished. The first building to bring the world's tallest title to New York
was the New York World Building, in 1890. Later, New York City was home to the world's
tallest building for 75 continuous years, starting with the Park Row Building in 1899 and
ending with 1 World Trade Center upon completion of the Sears Tower in 1974. One of the
world's earliest skyscrapers, still standing in the city, is the Park Row Building, built in 1899.
The Brooklyn skyline.

The high-rise buildings of Brooklyn constitute a third, much smaller skyline. The high-rise
buildings in downtown Brooklyn are centered around a major NYC subway hub. Downtown
Brooklyn is also experiencing an extensive building boom, with new high rise luxury
residential towers, commercial space and a new arena in the planning stages. The building
boom in Brooklyn has had a great deal of opposition from local civic and environmental
groups which contend that Brooklyn needs to maintain its human scale. The borough of
Queens has also been developing its own skyline in recent years with a Citigroup office
building (which is currently the tallest building in NYC outside Manhattan), and the Queens
West development of several residential towers along the East River waterfront.

The Chrysler Building (1930), is one of the city's best examples of the art-deco style with
ornamental hub-caps and iconic spire

The 1916 Zoning Resolution required setback in new buildings, and restricted towers to a
percentage of the lot size, to allow sunlight to reach the streets below.[2]
The Empire State Building (1931) the city's tallest building and arguably the most famous
skyscraper on Earth.

The Empire State Building, a 102-story contemporary Art Deco style building, was designed
by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon and finished in 1931. It was the world's tallest building for a
record 42 years. The tower takes its name from the nickname of New York State and is
currently the tallest building in the city. It was the first building to go beyond the 100+ story
mark, and has one of the world's most visited observation decks, which over 110 million have
visited since its completion. The building was built in a record 14 months.

Completed in 1930, the Chrysler Building is a distinctive symbol of New York, standing
1,048 feet (319 m) high on the east side of Manhattan. Originally built for the Chrysler
Corporation, the building is presently co-owned by TMW Real Estate (75%) and Tishman
Speyer Properties (25%). The Chrysler Building was the first structure in the world to surpass
the 1,000 foot threshold.

The GE Building is a slim Art Deco skyscraper and the focal point of Rockefeller Center. At
850 ft (259 m) with 70 floors, it is the seventh tallest building in New York and the 30th
tallest in the United States. Built in 1933 and originally called the RCA Building, it is one of
the most famous and recognized skyscrapers in New York. The frieze above the main
entrance was executed by Lee Lawrie and depicts Wisdom, along with a phrase from
scripture that reads "Wisdom and Knowledge shall be the stability of thy times", originally
found in the Book of Isaiah, 33:6.
The Seagram Building (1958), one of the city's first International-Style buildings.

The International Style was a groundbreaking exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art that
completely changed the face of architecture in New York and the world. Mies Van Der Rohe,
a focus of the show, later built the Seagram Building on Park Ave at 53rd Street. One of the
most important buildings for modern architecture, the Seagram Building transformed its
midtown site, the development of tall buildings, and the history of architecture. Other
architects replicated details from Seagram within New York and around the world for
decades following its completion in the late 1950s. The bronze extrusions attached to the
mullions are exemplary of this trend in tall building design and can be seen in many cities.

The twin towers of the World Trade Center (1970 and 1973) were the tallest buildings in
New York City before their destruction in the September 11 attacks.

The MetLife Building, formerly the Pan Am Building, was the largest commercial office
building in the world when it opened on 7 March 1963. It is an important part of the
Manhattan skyline and one of the fifty tallest buildings in the USA.

The World Trade Center's twin towers were the city's tallest buildings from 1973 until their
destruction in the September 11 attacks. The towers rose 1,368 feet (417 m) and 1,362 feet
(415 m) respectively, both 110 Floors. The North Tower's 360 foot antenna housed most of
the city's communications, while the South Tower was home to a popular observation deck.
They were the tallest buildings in the world until Chicago's 1,454-foot Sears Tower was
completed in 1974.

The Citigroup Center (1977), also one of the city's most striking skyscrapers with its 45°
angled top and a unique stilt-style base

Citigroup Center is 59-story office tower located at 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue in
Midtown Manhattan. It is considered one of the most important post-war skyscrapers to be in
erected in New York City. The striking design of the steeply slanted roof, the sleek
aluminum-clad façade, and its base on four stilts over a church also on the site made the
skyscraper an instant architectural icon. The sloping roof houses the building's mechanical
and ventilation systems. The designers settled on an aluminum-clad façade to reduce the
weight load on the building's foundation and support structures, since its entire weight would
be supported by stilts. However, this did not come without a price; when the building was
erected in 1977 it was discovered that the light-weight façade made the building vulnerable to
swaying under high wind conditions. Concerned that the building might tip over in very high
winds the building's engineers installed a "Tuned mass damper" in the roof which acts as a
counter-balance to the building's swaying.
The Hearst Tower. The city's first new energy-efficient tower (2006) constructed over the
original six-story preserved Hearst Building constructed in 1928.

Time Warner Center is a mixed-use skyscraper at Columbus Circle on Manhattan's Upper

West Side. It has attracted much attention as the first major building to be completed since
the September 11th terrorist attacks and has become known to many New Yorkers as the
"new twin towers." Additional publicity was generated in 2003 when David Martinez paid
$45 million dollars for a penthouse condominium, a record for New York residential sales.

The Condé Nast Building, officially Four Times Square, is a modern skyscraper in Times
Square in Midtown Manhattan and one of the most important examples of green design in
skyscrapers in the United States. Environmentally friendly gas-fired absorption chillers, along
with a high-performing insulating and shading curtain wall, ensure that the building does not
need to be heated or cooled for the majority of the year. Office furniture is made with
biodegradable and non-toxic materials. The air-delivery system provides 50% more fresh air
than is required by New York City Building Code, and a number of recycling chutes serve
the entire building. Being the first project of its size to undertake these features in
construction, the building has received an award from the American Institute of Architects, as
well as AIA New York State.

Hearst Tower, located in Midtown Manhattan at 300 West 57th Street, is another example of
the new breed of green design skyscrapers in New York City. Hearst Tower is a glass and
steel construction skyscraper which rests on the base of the original 1920s Hearst Corporation
Building. Hearst Tower is easily identified by the dramatic interlocking triangular glass
panels designed by British architect Lord Norman Foster. Hearst Tower is also the first
skyscraper in New York City to be awarded the coveted Gold LEED Certified rating by the
United States Green Building Council.

Skyscrapers have influenced architecture worldwide though tower blocks have met with
varying success.

[edit] Tallest buildings

Main article: List of tallest buildings in New York City

The 14 tallest standard structures, which include those with the 10 highest antennae or radio
towers (pinnacles)

Location
Std. Pinnacle Pinn. Standard Std.
Year (Midtown & Lower Floors
rank Name height hgt height hgt Notes
Manhattan)
ft m ft m
Empire State Fifth Avenue & West
1 1931 102 1,472 449 1,250 380 [11][12]
Building 34th Street
Sixth Avenue
Bank of America
2 2009 between 42nd & 43rd 54 1,200 370 1,200 370 [13][14]
Tower
Sts
Lexington Avenue &
3 Chrysler Building 1931 77 1,046 319 1,046 319 [15][16]
42nd Street
3 New York Times 2007 Eighth Avenue 52 1,046 319 1,046 319 [17][18]
 between 41st & 42nd
Building
Sts
American
Pine, Cedar and Pearl
5 International 1932 66 952 290 952 290 [19][20]
Streets
Bldg †
Wall Street between
6 40 Wall Street ‡ 1930 70 927 283 927 283 [21][22]
Nassau & William Sts
53rd Street between
7 Citigroup Center 1977 59 915 279 915 279 [23][24]
Lexington & 3rd Aves
Trump World First Avenue between
8 2001 72 861 262 861 262 [25][26]
Tower 47th & 48th Streets
30 Rockefeller Plaza,
GE Building (ex-
9 1930 6th Ave, 49th & 50th 70 850 259 850 259 [27][28]
RCA Bldg)
Sts
West 56th Street
10 CitySpire Center 1987 between 6th & 7th 75 814 248 814 248 [29][30]
Aves
between Pine,
One Chase
11 1961 Liberty, Nassau & 60 813 248 813 248 [31][32]
Manhattan Plaza
William Sts
Condé Nast Broadway between
12 2000 48 1,118 341 809 247 [33][34]
Building 42nd & 43rd Streets
200 Park Avenue at
13 MetLife Building 1963 59 808 246 808 246 [35][36]
(ex Pan Am) East 45th Street
Lexington Ave.
Bloomberg
14 2005 between E. 58th & 54 941 287 806 246 [37][38]
Tower
59th Sts
† (constructed as the Cities Service Company Building)
‡ (constructed as the Bank of Manhattan Trust Corporation Building)
All addresses are in Midtown Manhattan except those in lighter shades, which are in
Lower Manhattan.
Further information: List of tallest buildings in New York City

"Note": "Freddom Tower" [World Trade Center] is still TBA

[edit] Residential architecture

Apartment buildings in Hell's Kitchen.

The Dakota Building on the Upper West Side.

The city's period of rapid growth from 1870 to 1930 included significant development of
residential neighborhoods, populated by newly constructed brownstones, row houses, and
apartment buildings, which express a very different character than the skyscrapers that
densely pack the city's commercial districts. By 1870, stone and brick had become firmly
established as the building materials of choice, as the construction of wood-frame houses
had been greatly limited in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1835.[6][39] Unlike Paris,
which for centuries was built from its own limestone bedrock, New York has always
drawn its building stone from a network of quarries, sometimes quite distant, which is
evident in the variety of textures and hues of stone seen in the city's buildings. In the days
before rail, stones were floated down the Hudson River or along the Atlantic Seaboard
from pits in New England. While trains brought marble from Vermont and granite from
Minnesota, it was Connecticut brownstone that was so popular in the construction of New
York's row homes in late 19th century the that the term brownstone became synonymous
with row house.

The residential neighborhoods of upper Manhattan contain 19th century row houses, pre-
World War II apartment buildings, and modern post-war high-rises. Beautiful early 20th
century residential buildings can be found on both sides of Central Park along Fifth
Avenue and Central Park West, as well as on Riverside Drive, which overlooks Riverside
Park and the Hudson River.

Brownstone townhouses in Harlem.

Beginning in the 1950s, public housing projects dramatically changed the city's
appearance. New, large scale (frequently high-rise) residential complexes replaced older
communities at times removing artifacts and landmarks that would now be considered of
historic value. During this period, many of these new projects were built in an effort
towards urban renewal championed by the famed urban planner Robert Moses. The
resulting housing projects have suffered from inconsistent funding, poor maintenance,
and high crime, prompting many to consider these projects a failure.

A distinctive feature of residential (and many commercial buildings) in New York City is
the presence of wooden roof-mounted water towers, which were required on all buildings
higher than six stories by city ordinance in the 19th century because the municipal water
pipes could not withstand the extraordinarily high pressure necessary to deliver water to
the top stories of high-rise buildings.[40]

[edit] Street grid

Main article: Commissioners' Plan of 1811

Formulated in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, New York adopted a visionary proposal
to develop Manhattan north of 14th Street with a regular street grid. The economic logic
underlying the plan, which called for twelve numbered avenues running north and south,
and 155 orthogonal cross streets, was that the grid's regularity would provide an efficient
means to develop new real estate property. Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of
Central Park, disapproved.

New Yorkers commonly give addresses by the street and avenue number, as in "34th &
5th" for the Empire State Building.

One of the city's most famous thoroughfares, Broadway, is one of the longest urban
streets in the world. Other famous streets include Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue. 42nd
Street is the capital of American theater. The Grand Concourse, modeled on the Champs-
Élysées in Paris, is the most notable street in the Bronx. The City Beautiful movement
inspired similar boulevards in Brooklyn, known as parkways.

[edit] Gallery

Lever House
 

Guggenheim Museum

TWA Flight Center

New York Life Building

Flatiron Building

Williamsburgh Savings Bank

 

Brooklyn Bridge

St. Patrick's Cathedral

One Penn Plaza

Interior of the New York Public Library

Sony Building


 Lincoln Center

Saitta House, Dyker Heights, Brooklyn [41]

Trinity Church

[edit] See also