The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, built in 1884, is generally cited In the history of architecture as the first skyscraper. It was supported by a fireproof metal frame but it was still stone-plated (thus weighing less than one third of what it should have weighed had it been built solely with stone). It was the tallest building in the world from 1884 to 1889. It was demolished in 1931 because it had gotten too small for a supposed skyscraper: by that time NYC's Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building were 10 times taller. How fragile we are...