The Machines That Built the Sears Tower in 21 Months (1970-1973)
A few weeks ago we showed you how the World Trade Center was built, with four Australian climbing cranes hauling themselves up each tower. So how did Chicago take the world's-tallest title right back from New York just months later? Without those climbing cranes at all. The Sears Tower went up on four old-fashioned stiff-legged derricks that leapfrogged the frame every four floors, fed by trucks whose steel never once touched the ground. Seventy-six thousand tons of steel, one hundred and eight stories, twenty-one months. This is the story of the machines, the men, and the engineer almost nobody names, Fazlur Khan, who bundled nine tubes like a pack of cigarettes and built the tallest building on earth. Every documentary takes days of research. You can help us keep going by leaving a small donation — just click the link and support us: https://buymeacoffee.com/Construction... From the 201 caissons drilled into wet Chicago clay, to the "Christmas tree" steel modules whose width was set by a Chicago truck law, to the single beam that made Chicago taller than the World Trade Center on March 6, 1973, this is the build the postcards never show you. We also tell the truth about what it cost in human lives, which is not the number you usually hear. CHAPTERS 0:00 - The tower that beat the World Trade Center 1:39 - Sears orders the biggest headquarters on earth 3:19 - Fazlur Khan and the bundled-tube idea 11:23 - Drilling the foundation against water 15:19 - The Christmas trees and the truck-width law 18:22 - Derricks vs the World Trade Center's kangaroo cranes 25:54 - The day Chicago beat New York SOURCES & FURTHER READING Khan, "Sears Tower: Special Structural Design and Construction Considerations," SOM (1976); ASCE Civil Engineering (1972); AISC Modern Steel Construction, interview with John Zils (2023); Chicago Tribune & Chicago Sun-Times archives; American Bridge / U.S. Steel records. All images are used for historical and educational purposes under fair use. This documentary is presented for educational commentary on the history of American construction and engineering. #SearsTower #WillisTower #Chicago #Construction #EngineeringHistory #Skyscraper #FazlurKhan #BundledTube #Ironworkers #ConstructionLegends Subscribe for more forgotten machines that built America: / @constructionlegends
Inside Ford’s River Rouge Complex: The Fall of America’s Industrial Machine
Sean Carroll | The Passage of Time & the Meaning of Life
The Machines That Built the Empire State Building in 410 Days (1930-1931)
Why A Mile-High Skyscraper Is Almost Impossible | The Limit
The Machine That Built the Gateway Arch (1963-1965)
The Machines That Built the World Trade Center (1966-1973)
The Machines That Built The World Trade Center And Choked Workers With Poison
Trump's Mental State is Unraveling In Front of Us - Dr. John Gartner
When Chicago built the Tallest Building in the World | The story of Sears Tower
How Millions of Construction Materials Are Made Inside Giant Production Line
The 20 LARGEST Engines Ever Put in Old Cars!
How the Titanic Worked
How Just One Car Destroyed America's Car Industry
How Millions of Steel Cables Are Made Inside Massive Production Line
10 Ancient Things STILL WORKING Today
50 Insane Facts About Chicago (You Didn't Know)
The Brooklyn Bridge Should Have Been Impossible in 1870
The Dark Truth Behind the Empire State Building's Construction
Inside the Bucyrus-Erie Factory: How America Built Giants That Could Move Mountains
