40 Wall Street was the world's tallest building only for a few weeks (possibly less) when it was surpassed by the Chrysler Building. The competition between the two companies as well as the 2 architects (former partners) was covered by the press at the time as well as in Ric Burn's series on New York. At the time 40 Wall was the headquarters of the Bank of the Manhattan Company, a predecessor to Chase Manhattan. Donald Trump now owns it. So the answer to its date as tallest in the same year as Chrysler. Nancy Robertson -----Original Message----- From: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask] Sent: 2/4/00 12:19 PM Subject: Tallest NYC Buildings -- The Skyscapers, add'l Jerry Tobin, Jim Maguire, NYHISTers & NYC-Rootsers, In my earlier posting concerning the first skyscraper, I forgot to include its date. The Tower Building located at 50 Broadway was completed in 1889 and it lasted only until 1914. The Tower Building was 11 stories. It was developed and owned by John Noble Stearns, a silk importer. The architect was Bradford Lee Gilbert. There are two pictures of the Tower Building (1890 and 1900) accompanying a New York TIME's article (Page 7, Real Estate Section, Sunday, May 5, 1996) describing the building and the issues that had to be overcome in building it At the moment, I do not know when 40 Wall Street, the tallest skyscraper immediately prior to the Empire State Building was completed. A good resource (recommended by Christopher Gray, the TIMES architectural historian) is "Rise of the New York Skyscraper" by Bradford Landau and Carl W. Condit (Yale University Press, $50). Regards, Walter Greenspan