Skyscrapers, also called high-rises or tall buildings, were first built in America more than 100 years ago. Most people think that the first skyscraper was the Home Insurance Building, built in Chicago in 1886. It was ten stories high--and was thought to be the first skyscraper because it was the first to have a SKELETON - just like our bodies have.
Actually, what the Home Insurance Building had that no other building did before it--but all skyscrapers do today--is a STRUCTURAL SYSTEM. The structural system is made of hard steel beams and columns that connect to each other. It acts just like a skeleton does in our body: it holds everything around it and inside it. The skeletons of our bodies and the skyscrapers in cities have an important purpose. Without it, we would both fall down!
Click on the X-ray machine to see Tom's skeleton!
Wow--so this is what holds me up in inside!