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
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