Daily Independent

BUILT THE FIRST SKYSCRAPER.

New York Architect Gave the New Design to the World.

It is little more than 18 years since Bradford R. Gilbert erected the first skyscraper at 50 Broadway, New York, says the Broadway Magazine. It was an 11-story building.

One day, when it was still in the skeleton stage, he decided to climb up through the network of steel pillars and girders while a gale of wind was blowing.

He wished to make some tests of the effect of the storm on the skeleton. The people watching him from the sidewalk said he took his life in his hand. They expected to see the structure topple and fall, burying the hapless inventor in the ruins.

But Gilbert returned to earth unhurt -- a victor who had given the world a new idea that was to revolutionize the American city.

Since then skyscrapers have become almost a commonplace. Higher and higher they have soared -- 11, 14, 18, 20, 25, 41 or more stories -- piling wonder on wonder, transforming Wall, Nassau and Pine streets into narrow canyons between cliffs of steel and stone, and making Trinity church, the finest building in the city half a century ago, a mere foothill of the great skyscraper range.

Then came the new idea, just carried to success, which made men doubt if there were any limits to the height of the skyscraper. The tower of the Singer building at 149 Broadway began to soar into the air, piling story upon story, until there were 47 in all, and the lantern that crowned the steel skeleton was fastened in place 612 feet above the sidewalk.