How Elevators Helped Build the Modern Skyline

The History and Social Impact of the Elevator

Unsurprisingly, humanity has been craning objects up for centuries. The earliest evidence of simple hoisting platforms appears in the third century BCE. These were powered either by people, animals, or water wheels. Louis XV installed a man-powered elevator – complete with counterweight – to help him get around his palace at Versailles, saving him from dealing with the stairs in his heavy royal robes (and making it easier for him to visit his mistress on the floor above his official rooms).

In 1823, two London architects built an “ascending room” that used a steam engine to lift tourists in a chandelier-filled confection for a panoramic view of the City. At something like 40 feet per minute, this new technology was a popular tourist attraction but was too slow and too expensive to be a significant means of transport. Somewhat cheaper, faster hydraulic systems were introduced in 1846 and took over from steam by 1870.

The first public elevator was installed in a department store in 1857 and the first in an office building (both in Manhattan) in 1870. Next came the electric elevator, invented by Werner von Siemens (founder of the Siemens company). His electric motor increased the elevator’s popularity by making the ride smoother, faster, and more energy efficient.

The features of the modern elevator was essentially completed in 1887, when barber, inventor, and part-time real estate tycoon Alexander Miles innovated a mechanism to automatically open and close elevator doors. Miles was riding an elevator with his young daughter and saw that one of the doors to the elevator shaft had been left open. At this time, elevator operators and riders were expected to close off the shaft but regularly didn’t, and reports of people falling down the elevator shaft were not unusual. Miles’s was not the first patent for an automatic door closer but his was apparently the better design and still influences the designs in use today. (It really does take a village).

Elevator shafts became a core element of architectural design by 1885 with the building of the 8-story Equitable Life Insurance Building in Chicago, the first “skyscraper.” But even though tall buildings were now both possible and accessible, society was slow to embrace the idea that there was prestige to be had at the top of the building. For a long time, rents went down as the floor number went up, and only the lowest floors were considered premium space even after elevators became common. Equitable Life was so bashful about the height of its new structure that the windows were designed to imply the building was shorter than it was. As was customary for the time, Equitable Life occupied the lower floors, and the custodian got what we might now consider a penthouse apartment at the top.

The final transformation to the modern elevator came with the rise of electronic controls. The new tech eventually phased out the job of elevator operator. But even though push button systems were immediately cheaper, hand-controlled elevators run by friendly, area-knowledgeable operators continued to be common into the 1950s.

Elevator Fun Facts

• The Empire State Building still holds the record for the largest elevator order – 73 elevators that can travel at 1,200 feet per minute.
• The world’s fastest elevator is in the Shanghai Tower, which travels at 67 feet per second (or 46 mph). It runs continuously through 1,898 feet of the tower.
• The world’s tallest building, the Burj Kalifa in Dubai, has 57 elevators. None of them can travel to all 160 floors. Instead, they are designed as express lines for different parts of the tower.
• The record for being trapped in an elevator for the longest period goes to Manhattanite Nicholas White. In 1999, White went down for a smoke break late on a Friday night. He was riding back up at 11 pm when the car shut down for maintenance. Unfortunately for White, the maintenance crew started their work in a different part of the building and didn’t hear his cries for help until Sunday afternoon, 41 hours later.
• In the United States, the >< (”Close doors”) button really doesn’t do anything. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires an elevator’s doors to stay open long enough for anyone with mobility issues to be able to board the car safely. The doors will not close until the allotted time has been reached. Only after the time window has closed will pushing the button affect the controls. Of course, by that point, the doors will close automatically. But you can whack at the button if it makes you feel better.