3. Safety Elevators

The Woolworth Building’s innovation in construction extended to all aspects of the building, including its elevators. The 57-story building was the tallest building in the world at the time of its opening in 1913 (later dwarfed by the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings), and the second tallest structure in the world just behind the Eiffel Tower. When the Woolworth opened, it had the fastest elevators in the world, but, they didn’t all go all the way up.

On a recent phone call with Helen Post Curry, the great-granddaughter of architect Cass Gilbert, she told us that very few of the elevators go all the way to the top of the building. The Woolworth Building has elevator banks that only go to certain floors. The elevator shaft is also tapered so that, in the event of a free fall, air cushions will prevent the elevator car from gathering too much speed and plummeting to its doom. Apparently, when the Woolworth was built in 1913, they tested the system by allowing each elevator car to fall. The safety features of the Woolworth’s elevators are explained in great detail in a brochure for the building published in 1921.