Timeline of Tallest Buildings
This lists buildings that once held the title of tallest building in New York City. The Empire State Building is the current titleholder, having regained the title of tallest building in the city following the destruction of the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks. The Empire State Building is expected to be surpassed by the still under-construction One World Trade Center upon its completion in 2013.
Was also the world's tallest building during its period as New York City's tallest building| Name | Image | Street address | Years as tallest |
Height |
Floors | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church | Fort Amsterdam | 1643–1846 | 200 ! | 1 | Demolished | |
| Trinity Church | 06.079 Broadway | 1846–1853 | 279 (85) | 1 | ||
| Latting Observatory (1853-1856) |
06.042nd Street and Fifth Avenue | 1853–1854 | 315 (96) | 3 | Height reduced by 75 feet (23 m) in 1854; burned down in 1856 |
|
| Trinity Church | 06.079 Broadway | 1854–1890 | 279 (85) | 1 | ||
| World Building (1890–1955) |
12.0Frankfort Street | 1890–1899 | 348 (106) | 20 | Tied for tallest building in the city from 1894 to 1899; demolished in 1955 |
|
| Manhattan Life Insurance Building (1894–1930) |
05.064–70 Broadway | 1894–1899 | 348 (106) | 18 | Tied for tallest building in the city from 1894 to 1899; demolished in 1963-64 |
|
| Park Row Building | 03.013–21 Park Row | 1899–1908 | 391 (119) | 30 | ||
| Singer Building (1908–1968) |
07.0149 Broadway | 1908–1909 | 612 (187) | 47 | Demolished in 1968 | |
| Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower | 01.01 Madison Avenue | 1909–1913 | 700 (213) | 50 | ||
| Woolworth Building | 08.0233 Broadway | 1913–1930 | 792 (241) | 57 | ||
| Bank of Manhattan Trust Building | 04.040 Wall Street | 1930 | 927 (283) | 70 | ||
| Chrysler Building | 11.0405 Lexington Avenue | 1930–1931 | 970 !1,046 (319) | 77 | ||
| Empire State Building | 09.0350 Fifth Avenue | 1931–1972 | 980 !1,250 (381) | 102 | ||
| One World Trade Center (1972–2001) |
01.01 World Trade Center | 1972–2001 | 990 !1,368 (417) | 110 | Destroyed in the September 11, 2001, attacks | |
| Empire State Building | 09.0350 Fifth Avenue | 2001–2012 | 980 !1,250 (381) | 102 | ||
| One World Trade Center | 09.01 World Trade Center | 2012-present | 980 !1,368 (386) | 104 |
Read more about this topic: List Of Tallest Buildings In New York City
Famous quotes containing the words tallest and/or buildings:
“But not the tallest there, ‘tis said,
Could fathom to this pond’s black bed.”
—Edmund Blunden (1896–1974)
“Now, since our condition accommodates things to itself, and transforms them according to itself, we no longer know things in their reality; for nothing comes to us that is not altered and falsified by our Senses. When the compass, the square, and the rule are untrue, all the calculations drawn from them, all the buildings erected by their measure, are of necessity also defective and out of plumb. The uncertainty of our senses renders uncertain everything that they produce.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)