For 3,800 years, the tallest structure in the world was a tomb.

“Let’s write our names behind the wall here, with today’s date,” one worker said to the other.

“If Pharaoh Khufu finds out, we’ll be buried here before he will,” the other worker cautioned.

“Come on. Are you a scaredy cat?”

Well, cats were sacred to the ancient Egyptians. So, this was equivalent to jumping to the “Triple-Dog-Dare-You” from the movie “The Christmas Story.” (By the way, that movie is one of a few where the written words in the original story — in the case, Jean Shepherd wrote the book — are pretty much the same words spoken by the actors in the movie.)

Now, what could that worker do with that dare?

“Ok,” he answered. “But write farther back – there where it’s really dark and no one will ever find it.”

But, someone did, thousands of years later, and from the graffiti left by those workers, the Egyptologists determined the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the oldest and largest of the three pyramids on the Giza Necropolis in Eqypt, was finished around the year 2560 BC.

When completed, the Great Pyramid was 280 Egyptian cubits tall, which by today’s measures would be 146.5 meters or 480.6 feet (let’s round it to 481 feet), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the tallest structure in the world.

For 3,800 years, Pharaoh Khufu rested relatively peacefully, except for the intrusion of an occasional tomb robber or absent-minded archaeologist. The Pharaoh didn’t really mind the scribbling behind the wall, and it was nice to be #1 for so long.

Then, the churches started arguing.

“My spire is 149 meters (489 feet), the tallest of all,” said Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, England, around 1250 AD. “Nah, nah, nah.”

“Nah, nah, nah to yourself,” said Lincoln Cathedral in London. “Your spire got blasted by lighting. My spire, at 159.7 meters (524 feet), completed in 1300 AD, is the tallest of the tall.”

“No more for you, Mr. Lincoln Cathedral,” chided St. Mary’s Church in Stralsund, Germany. “Your spire collapsed in 1549. Now, I’m the highest of the high at 151 meters (495 feet).”

And so it went, back and forth, up and down, with spires collapsing, buildings burning and lightings leveling, until in 1901, the Ulm Minister in Ulm, Germany, was the last tall church standing, at 161.53 meters (530 feet).

Churches had ruled the roost from about 1250 to 1901 AD, around 850 years. And, at the finish of that rather long period of building and bickering, the height of the tallest building in the world had only increased about 50 feet. A good size flagpole could make Pharaoh’s tomb taller.

Let’s put that in perspective.

In some 4,650 years, the tallest building in the world was still only about 500 feet high.

Something needed to be done.

It was time for a great jump forward and upward.

Business and commerce huddled, clapped hands and responded to the challenge.

Leaping high into the sky, leaving ancient tombs and soaring churches below, the skyscraper was born.

To start, in 1901, the Philadelphia City Hall, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, the town that brought us the Declaration of Independence and the Crack in the Liberty Bell, declared its rights to height and rang on high at 167 meters (548 feet), the tallest structure of any kind, yet, but still not much over 500 feet, the ancestral limit of high achievement.

But, the race to reach had begun.

In rapid succession, the skyscrapers kept growing. From 1901 to 2010, just 109 years, the tallest building in the world grew from the Philadelphia City Hall at 167 meters (548 feet) to the Burg Khalifa megatall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at 829.8 meters (2,722 feet), currently the tallest building in the world.

Count ’em, folks.

Over some 4,650 years, we grew about 50 feet (15 meters), from tomb top to church spire. For that period, about 5,000 years, our buildings grew at an average of 0.01 feet per year. That’s about an inch every 8 years, and that is very, very slow.

In the last 109 years, we grew 2,174 feet (663 meters), and the climb has just begun. This means that, for the past 100 years or so, our buildings have grown at about 20 feet per year. That’s 2,000 times faster than the previous 5,000 years, and that is — comparatively — very, very fast.

If you ever doubt that the pace of our global society is on a rapid increase, just look up at the building next door.

We are truly reaching to scrape the sky.

For that, there is no end in sight.

Hold tight & enjoy the ride.

 

Grandpa Jim