National Skyscraper Day – September 3

When you think of skyscrapers, South Dakota doesn't necessarily come to mind, but have some tall-ish buildings here, sort of.  The tallest building in South Dakota is the 174-foot Century Link Tower in downtown Sioux Falls.  The 202 foot Zip Feed Tower was the tallest in the state until it's infamous failed implosion in 2005.  Too bad radio and TV towers don't count, some around the area are over 2000 feet tall.

In North Dakota, the tallest building is the 241 foot North Dakota State Capitol building in Bismarck.  Minnesota's tallest building is the 792 foot IDS Tower.  Nebraska's tallest building is the One First National Building at 634 feet.  Iowa's tallest building is in Des Moines.  The 801 Grand Building, also known as the Principal Building, stands at 630 feet.

The first "skyscraper" build from a steel frame was constructed in 1885 in Chicago.  It was the Home Insurance Building that stood 138 feet.

The top two tallest buildings in the US are the 1776 foot One World Trade Center in New York City and the 1450 foot Willis Tower (former Sears Tower) in Chicago.

The top two world's tallest buildings are the 2717 foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai standing 2073 feet.

Good thing we have high-speed elevators today.  Could you imagine climbing all those stairs?