i discovered via one of jessamyn’s trivia quizzes that the washington monument was once the tallest building in the world and it was surpassed by the eiffel tower. i’ve been to the top of the washington monument and the eiffel tower; i’ve also been to the top of the world trade center, the empire state building and the cn tower which i’m fairly certain were all the tallest buildings in the world when they were built.. i’m after a definitive list of all the structures that have held the title of “world’s tallest building” and i can’t find one anywhere.

this list at skyscraperpage.com claims to be that list but it doesn’t go back as far as the construction of the washington monument in 1884 or the eiffel tower in 1889. there’s plenty to explore in the diagrams though! i looked through the tallest buildings in the uk, outside of london’s office blocks they are dominated by dull blocks of glaswegian flats with only the blackpool tower and the scott monument in edinburgh getting a look in from the rest of the country.

[link to skyscraperpage.com found via boing boing]