Tallest Structures
This category does not require the structure be "officially" opened.
The tallest man-made structure is Burj Khalifa, a skyscraper in Dubai that reached 829.8 m (2,722 ft) in height on January 17, 2009. By April 7, 2008 it had been built higher than the KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota, USA. That September it officially surpassed Poland's 646.38 m (2,120.7 ft) Warsaw radio mast, which stood from 1974 to 1991, to become the tallest structure ever built. Guyed lattice towers such as these masts had held the world height record since 1954.
The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, standing at 553.3 m (1,815 ft), was formerly the world's tallest completed freestanding structure on land. Opened in 1976, it was surpassed in height by the rising Burj Khalifa on September 12, 2007. It has the world's second highest public observation deck at 446.5 m (1,465 ft).
The Petronius Platform stands 610 m (2,000 ft) off the sea floor leading some, including Guinness World Records 2007, to claim it as the tallest freestanding structure in the world. However, it is debated whether underwater height should be counted in the same manner as height below ground is ignored on buildings. The Troll A platform is 472 m (1,549 ft), without any part of that height being supported by wires. The tension-leg type of oil platform has even greater below-water heights with several examples more than 1,000 m (3,300 ft) deep. However, these platforms are not considered constant structures as the vast majority of their height is made up of the length of the tendons attaching the floating platforms to the sea floor. Despite this, Guinness World Records 2009 listed the Ursa tension leg platform as the tallest structure in the world with a total height of 1,306 m (4,285 ft). The Magnolia Tension-leg Platform in the Gulf of Mexico is even taller with a total height of 1,432 m (4,698 ft).
Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan, set records in three of the four skyscraper categories at the time it opened in 2004; at the time the Burj Khalifa opened in 2010 it remained the world's tallest inhabited building 509.2 m (1,671 ft) as measured to its architectural height (spire). The height of its roof 449.2 m (1,474 ft) and highest occupied floor 439.2 m (1,441 ft) had been surpassed by the Shanghai World Financial Center with corresponding heights of 487 m (1,598 ft) and 474 m (1,555 ft) respectively. Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) was highest in the final category: the greatest height to top of antenna of any building in the world at 527.3 m (1,730 ft).
Burj Khalifa broke the height record in all four categories for completed buildings by a wide margin.
Read more about this topic: List Of Tallest Buildings And Structures In The World
Famous quotes containing the words tallest and/or structures:
“But not the tallest there, ‘tis said,
Could fathom to this pond’s black bed.”
—Edmund Blunden (1896–1974)
“The philosopher believes that the value of his philosophy lies in its totality, in its structure: posterity discovers it in the stones with which he built and with which other structures are subsequently built that are frequently better—and so, in the fact that that structure can be demolished and yet still possess value as material.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)