The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 (Oxford History of the United States)

by Richard White

New technologies allowed the buildings to rise. The safety elevator, invented by Elisha Otis in 1852, moved people and things from floor to floor without undue labor. Pipes brought steam from central plants to heat the new buildings. In New York, buildings sprouted water towers on their roofs to create the necessary pressure for running water and sprinklers to suppress fires. The buildings had become too large for fire ladders and fire hoses to reach their upper stories, and the new water systems offered them protection. But the most critical innovation was the use of iron and steel in revolutionary new designs cloaked by stone and brick exteriors. Instead of having thick weight-bearing masonry walls, these buildings used cage or skeleton construction, which permitted thin walls, providing more floor space, larger windows, and thus more interior light.