America is known for its many great achievements. These include sending Neil Armstrong to the Moon in 1969 and creating the economic engine that won World War II. But when you land a plane in the United States, you can't see these results because they are not tangible. You can't stand anywhere on American soil and say "this was the country that went to the moon." GK Chesterton once said: “Architecture is the alphabet of giants; it is the largest set of symbols ever made to meet the eyes of men. A tower stands as a sort of simplified statue, of much more than heroic dimensions." The one thing that is evident about America is that we were the country that transformed the world architecturally. The skyscraper was born and raised in the United States of America. The American skyscraper can be seen everywhere, from San Diego, to Atlanta, to Minneapolis; you can see evidence everywhere that America designed the skyscraper. Standing in New York, without looking at the bank account or the economic state of America, you can see the economic prosperity of history. “Tall buildings have captured the imagination,” prosperity and hard work of people throughout history. Skyscrapers represent great power, hard work and control in the United States, the skyscraper is the greatest symbol in American history. “In the 1870s, buildings rarely exceeded four stories.” It was only with the improvement of iron and steel as structurally sound materials that taller buildings became the real world. These advances in architecture allowed architects of that era to experiment. Most of the skyscraper development can be linked to the shocking fire that razed much of Chicago in 1871. City officials turned from wood to fire... middle of paper... guide to US history of the nineteenth century. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2008. 338.Breslin, Cynthia L., “Empire State Building Opens.” Great Events in History: The Twentieth Century, 1901-1940. Edition E Book.Michael Tavel Clarke, “Chapter 4: The City of Terrible Height: Skyscrapers and the Aesthetics of Growth,” in These Days of Large Thing, ed. (The University of Michigan Press, 2007). Montgomery Schuyler, “The Chicago Architects,” Annals of American History, 1.Schlager, Neil and Josh Lauer. "The Empire State Building: the skyscraper symbol of American power". In science and its times: understanding the social meaning of scientific discovery. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001.Skrabec, Quentin R.. "The World's First Skyscraper." In The 100 Most Significant Events in American Affairs: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2012.