Video: Big deception and the smallest skyscraper in the world
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
WITH big deception so many wonderful stories begin, some of them with happy endings. One of these stories tells about the smallest skyscraper in the world, which stands in the Texas city of Wichita Falls. The height of an unremarkable brick turret sticking out of a nondescript barn-like structure is neither more nor less, 12 meters … Who and for what merits made this miracle in skyscrapers, and what does it have to do with it? big deception? You will find out now.
In 1912, oil was found in Wichita County. Dealers and industrialists from all over Texas and beyond flocked to the smell of oil like flies to sugar. By 1918, the city of Wichita Falls had 20,000 inhabitants, and local offices were just popping with their business activity. Who will build a new temple of profit in a thriving city, and give offices to suffering businessmen? Of course he is the engineer. J. D. McMagon.
The engineer announced plans to build a large new skyscraper in Wichita Falls. McMagon submitted the project: on paper, it turned out that a building would be built with a height of 480 feet - that's about 146 meters. Investors with burning eyes immediately threw him 200,000 dollars (a lot of money at that time), and happily approved the project: after all, even 200,000 for such a skyscraper is very cheap.
Laughing, the engineer began work and delivered it on time. What is the big deception? And the fact that instead of 480 feet on the project it was indicated 480 inches! This is exactly 12 meters. The deceived business depositors, clutching at their pockets, ran to court. The judge, however, calmly ruled: they were banging their eyes, they were bathing them. And so it happened that the deception went unpunished, and the cunning McMagon became a rich man.
And in the end, the city of Wichita Falls received, if not a skyscraper, but still quite a decent house. Newby-McMahon has survived decades to become a monument to the greed, gullibility and oil boom of Texas. Today, the building houses an antique shop and an artist's studio, and the house itself has been declared a Texas Historic Landmark. Probably, they are proud to live in the smallest skyscraper in the world - albeit built as a result big deception.
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