Looking back through time, the world’s tallest man-made structure was the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. It held that position over 3,800 years, until the Lincoln Cathedral was built in 1311. France’s Strasbourg Cathedral, completed in 1439, was the world’s tallest building until 1874.
The world’s first “skyscraper” was built in 1885 in Chicago. All told, 11 American buildings have held the title of tallest building in the world, mostly in New York City and the borough of Manhattan.
Today the world’s tallest building is located in Dubai. The Burj Khalifa was built in 2009 and is 2,717 ft. tall.
The tallest building in the U.S. since 2013 is NYC’s One World Trade Center. Prior to the attacks, the twin towers of the first World Trade Center occupied the second and third positions on the list for the world.
Florida’s tallest
The state has 45 buildings that are 550 feet or higher. The majority are located in Miami. The rest are in Tampa and Jacksonville. Surprisingly, none of them are in Orlando.
The title of tallest belongs to Panorama Tower (826 ft.) in Miami.
The tallest building on the West Coast of Florida soars above St. Petersburg’s skyline – The Residences at 400 Central at 515 feet.
The roof of High Point Place in downtown Fort Myers is being replaced after it was damaged by Hurricane Irma in 2017. The tallest of five buildings stand at 32 stories high and are the tallest buildings between Miami and Tampa. The roof on all the buildings are being replaced by Crowther Roofing.
Fort Myers tallest
The tallest structure in Fort Myers and all of Lee County is High Point I. The 33-story residential condominium building reaches a height of 341 feet, according to the council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Construction started in 2004 and was completed in 2007. It is located at 2104 West First Street.
Bonair Towers in Fort Myers; date unknown.
The 1965 construction of Bonair Towers in Fort Myers.
Before that, the 11-story “Fort Myers Housing Authority edifice at 1915 Halgrim served as the tallest structure in the city when it debuted in 1965,” according to a April 8, 2024, News-Press article written by Phil Fernandez. Known as Bonair Towers, it “cost of $1.1 million” and “ its pilings had a total combined length of nearly three miles.”
The towers at Kalea Bay, North Naples.
Naples tallest
The tallest structure in Naples is Kalea Bay Tower 1, at 246 feet, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
Before that, the Iberia Bank building, on the corner of Goodlette-Frank Road and Golden Gate Parkway, and the Fifth Third Center on U.S. 41 and Vanderbilt Beach Road, were said to be the tallest, according to a Sept. 22, 2016, filing in the Naples Daily News.
Sources: The News-Press, Naples Daily News, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and Wikipedia.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Archives: Historic highs – And the tallest buildings in SWFLA
