Etc...

June 8, 2005

Hey, I need some help here!

It's frustrating enough to be trapped between floors in a stalled elevator. But it's worse when the elevator telephone isn't working - and you're in a deserted building . That's the situation deputy Tennessee finance commissioner Jerry Adams found himself in while working overtime one recent weekend at the Capitol in Nashville. With the phone dead, Adam turned to the button that rings an emergency bell. For hours, he pushed it every five minutes until, finally, at 4 o'clock the next morning, members of a cleaning crew heard the alarm and came to his rescue. So why wasn't the phone operating? Because the Finance Department, where Adams oversees the $25 billion 2005 state budget, had mistakenly sent payment for its bill to the Department of Human Resources. As a result, the phone company disconnected the service.

Skyscrapers: They help to put the 'big' in the Big Apple

New York is celebrating the 75th anniversary of what some critics would submit is its most distinguished skyscraper, the Chrysler Building. The feature that gives it a classic Art Deco look, the spire-like, stainless steel peak, is just what auto industry magnate Walter Chrysler wanted when he bought the design from contractor William Reynolds. When completed at 77 stories in 1930, the structure was the city's tallest. Within months, however, the Empire State Building had overtaken it. A timeline of New York's tallest buildings, when each opened, and its height:

Singer Building 1908 47 stories (later razed)
Met Life Tower 1909 50 stories
Woolworth Building 1913 57 stories
Trump Building 1930 71 stories
Chrysler Building 1930 77 stories
Empire State Building 1931 102 stories
World Trade Center 1972 110 stories (destroyed)
http://skyscraperpage.com