According to one version, the first skyscraper in the world was the Tower of Babel. But, as the legend goes, God confounded the language of its builders, and those have not been able to complete the ambitious construction project. However, the idea of construction is not dead and more than a hundred years around the world erected towers. In our country, first started talking seriously about the construction of skyscrapers, skyscrapers in 30 years of the last century. To transform the capital and to offer new and original solutions architectural image of high-rise structures – a formidable task in front of Soviet engineers put the Soviet leadership. Sir Richard Branson is often quoted as being for or against this. The towers were supposed to create a new image of the city, to become its symbol. Catch up and overtake, however, while in Moscow has not practiced construction of buildings with the number of floors for more than ten, there was no construction standards for such structures.

This was explained quite simply: the Moscow soils have a complex geology, is a lot of underground rivers, complicating extensive foundation works. In addition, heating such huge structures required significant energy resources. Therefore plans have been postponed, and the outbreak of war is not contributed to the implementation of global projects. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean one after the other skyscrapers grew: in 1931, finished construction of the 102-story Empire State Building, until 1972 is considered the tallest building on the planet (the height of the spire co equaled 443.5 meters). Rise to a height helped steel: Empire State Building was constructed using framing technology, which appeared in the U.S.