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Practice Reading: Fill in the Blanks (Dropdown) ID: #1052 Eiffel
Instructions
The  Eiffel  Tower  was  the  tallest  building  in  the  world  when  it  was  completed  in  1889.  It  was  built  for  the  World's  Fair  to    that  iron  could  be  as  strong  as  stone  while  being  infinitely  lighter.

And  in  fact  the  wrought-iron  tower  is  twice  as  tall  as  the  masonry  Washington  Monument  and  yet  it  weighs  70,000  tons  less!  It  is  repainted  every  seven  years  with  50  tons  of  dark  brown  paint.

Called  "the  father  of  the  skyscraper,"  the  Home  Insurance  Building,      in  Chicago  in  1885  (and  demolished  in  1931),  was  138  feet  tall  and  10  stories.  It  was  the  first  building  to  effectively  employ  a  supporting    of  steel  beams  and  columns,  allowing  it  to  have  many  more  windows  than  traditional  masonry  structures.  But  this  new  construction  method  made  people  worry  that  the  building  would  fall  down,  leading  the  city  to  halt  construction  until  they  could    the  structure's  safety.

In  1929,  auto  tycoon  Walter  Chrysler  took  part  in  an  intense  race  with  the  Bank  of  Manhattan  Trust  Company  to  build  the  world's  tallest  skyscraper.  Just  when  it  looked  like  the  bank  had  captured  the    title,  workers  at  the  Chrysler  Building  jacked  a  thin  spire  hidden  inside  the  building  through  the  top  of  the  roof  to  win  the  contest  (subsequently  losing  the  title  four  months  later  to  the  Empire  State  Building).  Chrysler  also  decorated  his  building  to  mirror  his  cars,  with  hubcaps,  mudguards,  and  hood  ornaments.

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