引领时代的潮流.pdfVIP

引领时代的潮流 The Story of a Skyscraper 摩 天 大 楼 的故 事 ■枫浦 编注 两个汽车巨人的竞争铸就了帝国大厦的传奇, 而它作为 曾经 的世界最高建筑也 曾煊赫一时。从这篇短文中我们可 以了解帝国 大厦的建造经过、名字的由来 以及其他一些趣闻。 1 On May , 2001, New Yorks Empire State Building celebrated its 70th birthday . Although it has now been dwarfed 1 by several other 2 buildings in the Big Apple, when it was completed in 1931 it was over 61 m (200 ft) taller than its nearest rival, the Chrysler Building, and at 381 m (1,250 ft) remained the tallest building in the world for 41 years, until the World Trade Center was completed in 1972 - 1973 . The story of the Empire State begins with two mens race to build the highest man - made structure in the world . The French Challenge 1 M odern Times In 1889 the central feature of the Worlds Fair3 in Paris was 4 5 Gustave Eiffel s massive tower, constructed with wrought iron and standing 300 m (980 ft) high . Architects in the United States viewed this as something of a challenge, and by the early 20th century the race was on to erect taller buildings than ever before . Soon skyscrapers were springing up along the New York skyline . In 1928 the founder of the Chrysler corporation, Walter Chrysler, announced the building of a huge new skyscraper, taller than anything so far constructed in New York . It soon became clear that the new building was part of Chrysler s 6 aim to rival the motoring giant General Motors . So John Jakob Raskob , of General Motors, decided to race Chrysler to t