William Penn

During the 1960's, I made a couple of trips to Philadelphia for the Social Security Administration. On one of the trips, I ventured to the top of the William Penn, on top of city hall. I remember climbing rickety stairs... but a co-worker, Gene McMahon, said he went up on a rickety elevator.

At the time, there weren't that many skyscrapers in Philly, and the view was spectacular.

Recently, as I traveled through Philly on a train, I looked around to try to see William, and finally spotted him, just half way up lots of the new skyscrapers. Times and cities change.

Around the same time, I took an elevator to the top of the highest building in Baltimore. I think it was 32 stories. I was let off at the penthouse level, which was empty at the time. The view from there was spectacular too. This was before the building of the marvelous "Inner Harbor."

Now, that same building is dwarfed by many many other buildings.

Now, it seems that American cities have been outclassed in terms of high buildings by cities like Hong Kong and Shanghai. And look at Dubai!

It might have been Buckminster Fuller who predicted mile-high skyscrapers that would hold 125,00 residents. In between these massive buildings, there might be beautiful parks and lakes.

Elaine is a sky-diver. I wonder if she would consider jumping off the top of a mile-high building? Sky-divers probably have to fly higher than a mile. I marvel at how they can jump out of a plane so high and land in an 18' circular target area on the ground. They have to do that in Salisbury, Maryland because the local farmer would pepper them with shot if they landed in his fields. "Why would anyone want to jump out of a perfectly good plane?"

(Well, soon I will get back to posting about the news.)