WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Skybridge, Part 2 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:07.760 Hey, are you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind? 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:08.720 My name is Robert. 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:11.240 Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday, so we 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.120 are bringing you an episode from the vault. This one 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.960 originally published on July fourteenth, twenty twenty two, and it's 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.880 part two of our series on the Skybridge. 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:26.440 I hope you enjoy. 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:29.040 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:37.159 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:38.040 name is Robert. 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:40.640 Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with part 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:45.919 two of our talk about sky bridges or skyways. If 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:47.800 you haven't heard part one yet, maybe you should go 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:50.440 check that one out first, but as a brief refresher, 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:55.440 a skybridge or a skyway is an architectural feature that 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:57.440 you can think of as kind of a hallway in 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:01.760 the sky, or an enclosed bridge linking two buildings by 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:05.560 the upper floors. In the last episode, we talked about 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:10.560 some modern examples of skybridges and some interesting ones from history, 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:15.440 such as the Bridge of Size in Venice, Italy's enclosed 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:18.559 passageway that may look romantic from the outside but has 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:24.319 mostly historical associations with torture and prisons. But in the 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:27.240 let's see, But in today's episode, I think we're going 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:31.160 to be talking more about what skybridges mean, how they're interpreted, 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:33.000 and how they might be used in the future. 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:35.920 That's right. So, first of all, I do want to 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:40.880 refer back to some examples, just briefly that we discussed 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:43.800 the you know, just the idea of say, the powerful 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:49.920 Metichi family in Italy using these enclosed spaces and occasional 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:53.800 things that we would definitely categorize as a skybridge to 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:56.160 move from one place to the other without interacting with 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:00.440 enemies or commoners, et cetera. We also looked at some 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:06.080 examples of royalty in China engaging in similar practices, using 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:10.840 these as sort of privileged passage ways for royal members 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:11.560 of society. 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:16.080 Oh so, what was the Chinese ruler who went about 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:18.600 in these halls so that devils would not see where 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:21.960 he walked and he could only embrace good people? 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:24.320 It said, yes, yes, that would have been in Bertin 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:29.240 shi Wang. Yeah, so that he could quote act mysteriously 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:33.720 to avoid devils and meanwhile embrace virtuous individuals. And one 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:35.440 thing that we mentioned was that, yeah, Okay, this is 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.400 one thing within a historical context, but generally speaking, I 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:43.440 think a lot of us wouldn't want to overtly invoke 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:47.040 that kind of idea. So in there we get to 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.080 some of these sort of controversy and back and forth 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:53.880 over just the nature of the skybridge, not only what 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.360 it physically does, but also like what is it, what 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:02.680 does it do in terms of society and urban planning, 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.520 and just the larger nature of the city that goes 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:09.640 beyond just mere structures and moving people around. And so 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.320 I want to come back to the architect John Portman Junior. 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.720 John Portman Junior lived nineteen twenty four through twenty seventeen 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:23.360 American neo futurist architect and real estate developer. We mentioned 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:25.920 some of the examples of his work here in Atlanta, Georgia. 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:30.000 He's known for popularizing the atrium, but also in using 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.760 a lot of sky bridges. Now, as we mentioned, of course, 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:35.160 there are a number of practical reasons to have sky 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:37.920 bridges in a structure, moving people around so they don't 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:45.280 have to engage in say hostile environment, hot temperatures, freezing rain, 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:48.480 that sort of thing. Also, you're going to have situations 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:52.600 where you want to share resources within two different towers, 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:55.200 so connect those towers at a higher floor. That way, 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:56.880 people don't have to go all the way back down 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:00.320 and then back up again, perhaps crossing a street, or 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.320 you know, checking in and out of security along the way, 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:07.440 that sort of thing. But in the case of Portman's 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:12.880 Peachtree Center skybridges, there's apparently been controversy over the years 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:16.880 over the use of such walkways. So this area emerged 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.800 during the nineteen seventies, and while some of it is dated, 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:22.640 some of it is still quite impressive. I have to 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:25.760 say the Marta train station at Peachtree Center is probably 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.040 the coolest looking one in the system. It has these 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.360 rock walls as well as this kind of still I 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.839 would say futuristic looking like shiny metal surfaces. 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:39.559 I don't know if he designed the Marta station in question, 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:41.800 but there was one Marta station at least that was 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:45.320 used as a setting for a cut scene in John 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.240 Carpenter's Escape from New York. I think because it, you know, 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:51.479 the sort of the blocky concrete fixtures, and it just 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:52.880 looked futuristic enough. 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:55.200 Yeah, yeah, certainly at the time that was was that 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:58.400 five point station. I can't recall off hid but certainly. 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.279 You're right on that sounds like, yeah, yeah. 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:05.680 That also is a huge enclosed space that is impressive 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:06.400 in its own way. 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:06.840 To walk through. 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.039 But at any rate, yeah, this is all part of 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:16.320 the varying stages of revitalization efforts in downtown Atlanta, and 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:20.279 during this time and especially the decades to follow, Peachtree 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:22.800 Center was, in the eyes of its critics, this thing 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:26.240 that by its very structure, sought to cut out street 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:31.920 level Atlanta in its entirety, and not only people but businesses. 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:37.000 So rather than optimistically futuristic, the critics would say, well, 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:39.760 this is actually more wellsy and a world of privilege 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:43.760 above cut off from the realities of the street below. 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:46.960 There was one account that I was looking at of 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:50.640 looking through various old news stories, and I saw one 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:53.000 about I believe it was a janitor strike that was 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:58.200 taking place, and this particular author had mentioned people avoiding 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:02.080 the protesters by making use of the sky bridges, which 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.560 seems like a stark example of the sort of you know, 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.360 the sort of privileged walkway that in ways I think 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:10.279 can be compared to some of these older models that 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.960 we were discussing now. The nineteen seventies. We're also not 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:18.800 a period during which green downtowns were prioritized to certainly 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:23.320 not in Atlanta. So you know, one can can factor 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:27.320 that into the kind of weirdly spaceship like architectural approach 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:29.640 that one sees in some of these buildings. Were discussing 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:33.520 so giant open atriums in buildings joined to each other 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:37.080 by enclosed tunnels and bridges cut off from an outside, 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:41.120 where you have a languishing downtown and also just everything's 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:45.000 just a sweltering, gray heat island. This is actually one 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.440 of the reasons that Trees Atlanta was founded in nineteen 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.839 eighty five to begin the quote greening of downtown. 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:51.920 Oh, I didn't know that. 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:55.080 I don't know exactly how far this far back this 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.240 reputation goes, but at least today Atlanta is known as 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:01.159 a city that has an unusual amount of trees and 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:02.760 in its urban center. 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:07.159 Yeah, well, as far as downtown Atlanta goes, especially, a 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.440 lot of that is we can think Trees Atlanta for 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.200 so all that's very very local to us. But I 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.000 think these are all great examples of some of the 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.920 you know, the discussions that take place over the use 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:20.840 of the skybridge and next direction we'd like to go in, though, 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:24.000 is taking a step back and talking about for the 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:25.480 most part, taking a step back, but a lot of 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.360 this is also still contemporary as well. But talking about 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:32.600 futurism and the skybridge, the ideas that end up being 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.680 wrapped up in concepts that have skybridges in them, you know, 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:40.040 what we're actually trying to achieve, And what are some 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:42.640 of the visions, sort of the loftier ideas that are 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:44.640 caught up in all of this, And indeed, what are 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:48.360 some of the really pivotal forward facing ideas that we 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.440 can point to in the early twentieth century. 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.600 So when I was thinking about the social meaning of skybridges, 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:59.480 especially in science fiction, it's interesting I have a general 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:05.080 sense that skybridges are often used in fictional architecture to 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:07.800 emphasize exactly this kind of theme you were just talking about. 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.400 It was sort of people living in elevated tubes of 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:16.760 privilege that disconnect them from the realities below. And one 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:21.160 specific example is that I had a pretty distinct memory 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:25.800 of the movie Metropolis, the nineteen twenty seven Fritz Long movie, 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:32.560 sort of German expressionist science fiction masterpiece, and my idea 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:35.240 at least in my head was that this movie was 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:39.320 full of skybridges. But when I did a Google search, 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:41.480 I didn't find a lot of examples. The main thing 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:45.400 I actually found in screenshots appeared to be rail lines 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.760 connecting the tops of buildings, and I found what looks like, 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.960 I don't know, it looks like hand drawn illustrations based 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:55.280 on the movie that do appear to have like connected 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.920 enclosed hallways, But I'm not sure how accurate my memory 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.640 that the city in Metropolis is full of skybridges is. Nevertheless, 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:05.679 for some reason, I had that impression there certainly are 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:10.480 these these elevated rail lines going between skyscraper tops and 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:14.439 Metropolis is A is a great dystopian sci fi film, 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:17.720 one of the major themes of which is economic injustice. 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.960 It presents a sort of class bifurcated society where you have, 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.800 you know, idle rich people sort of frittering away their 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:29.160 days up in the tops of great tall buildings, apparently 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.240 rarely or never having to go down into the streets. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:35.760 And meanwhile, the workers and the factories who make this 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:40.240 techno utopia possible are confined to physically lower spaces, even 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:44.480 subterranean tunnels and caverns, and eventually there is a revolt 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.480 in the film. But the theme is certainly there. But 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:49.960 though maybe it doesn't have as many skybridges as I 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:52.200 actually remember. I don't know, maybe they're just not coming 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:54.960 through in the screen, you know, grabs that people have 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:56.320 put up on the internet. 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:59.880 I think there are definitely skybridges in Metropolis. I know 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.600 that some of the sources I was looking at they 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:07.480 referenced specifically early twentieth century science fiction cinematography. And when 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.320 you're talking about that, you're talking about Metropolis. I mean, 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:17.320 Metropolis is the example of a futuristic cinema from especially 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:20.760 the twenties part excellence. You know, this is it, this 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:21.520 is the big one. 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:24.120 And I did want to note that this vision of 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.880 tall buildings occupied by the rich at the top while 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:30.600 the workers live down on the ground. This interestingly, it 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.560 squares with some reality, such as the idea of like 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:37.080 I don't know, you know, the penthouse apartment. But also 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.600 the class associations are often inverted. Like I was reading 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:44.520 some actual research papers about the psychological and social impact 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:46.400 of living in tall buildings, which I'll get into in 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:50.640 a minute, and these studies often cited the exact opposite 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:56.040 that there are widespread assumptions of high rise living being 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.360 associated with lack. 0:10:58.240 --> 0:10:59.240 Of economic means. 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.959 But as much is, architecture is often a metaphor for 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:07.040 economic realities. I think also lots of sci fi has 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:10.520 visions of future urban spaces where the tops of tall 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.760 buildings are connected, and doesn't necessarily have that meaning. It's 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:17.280 not always a class critique, I think sometimes instead it's 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:21.160 supposed to be taken as a sign of a complex 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:25.360 or complicated society, that there are avenues connecting things back 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.560 and forth, like the like the arteries of a circulatory system, 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:32.360 that it's a complex not of associations, resembling a kind 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:35.559 of like the vines in a jungle in physical form. 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:39.080 And of course, in fact, there's sort of a literal 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:43.920 analogy to the biological architecture of a rainforest, because on 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.240 a rainfores in a rainforest, you know, you have sort 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:49.160 of one level of life going on at the forest floor, 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:51.760 which of course is all connected by the continuous surface, 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.840 but then you have the tree canopy level where the 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:58.720 lateral connection of the ground level is replicated up above. 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:00.000 Yeah. 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.400 Yeah, And so I think even in sci fi movies 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:06.400 without an economic critique. There we see all these hallways 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.160 going back and forth between the skyscrapers, and it just 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.640 makes us feel like, wow, it's so complex and there's 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:14.880 so much going on, and it would be you know, 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:17.240 it would be hard for me to even understand how 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:19.959 the you know, the many layers of this society. 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:23.400 Yeah, because it's interesting to sort of crack this, not 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.200 because one thing. And I'll come back to some sources 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:28.160 that touch on this in a debt. If you think 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.760 of like the upper pinhouse of a of a of 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.560 a very tall building, a skyscraper, what have you, the 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.440 thing is like that is a dead end. That is 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.800 the point at which you generally have no choice but 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:44.960 to turn around and come back down. And you know, 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:46.800 you can say, oh, well maybe there's a helicopter port 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.199 up there. Okay, well there's that. And certainly you can 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:52.560 extend this by pointing out that while some of the 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:56.800 futuristic visions of cities and where we're going where or 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.160 have been planning, they also often involve say a whole 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:03.520 bunch of flying cars moving around or other flying flying vehicles, 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:07.840 flying machines that are serving as a way to connect 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:12.240 these isolated islands in the sky. The classic examples of 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:13.600 that would be like Blade Runner. 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:16.800 Now, I think you could assume that maybe with Blade Runner, 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.640 like you look at some architectural features and say, there's 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:24.240 implied critique here, there's some kind of implied critique about 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.600 the society we're being shown. But there are other cases 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:28.920 where I don't know if there is. It's just sort 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:32.320 of like inherited science fiction texture. Like in the Star 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:35.800 Wars prequels. You see that exacting traffic going back and 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.320 forth at many levels. There's like you know, like the 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:42.480 layers of a cake, the different crisscrossing streams of flying cars. 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:45.679 Yeah. Yeah, I mean there's definitely an underworld to Coroissant 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.480 as well. But yeah, there are other films like I 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:50.280 don't know, The Fifth Element, for example, has a lot 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:53.599 of cool flying cars and that that feels might be 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:57.400 more like just sci fi texture. But to come back 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.120 to this idea like Coraissant with an underworld and all 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:01.959 all this, I can't help but think, of course, of 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.280 Dante's Inferno and all of this, and think again of 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:09.840 the of the skyscraper as mountain in Dante's Divine Comedy. 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:12.320 We of course have the complexities of the of the 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.680 underworld of Inferno, we have the mount of Purgatory that 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:20.720 extends upward and reaches the point of Paradise. Because because 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:22.040 then in the third Book, of course, we have the 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.080 heavenly realm and the heavenly realm. I guess we might 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:28.480 we might well compare to some of these visions of 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:32.760 the the the upper parts of skyscrapers being connected together. 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:36.040 We don't want isolation and loneliness in our heavens. We 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:37.920 want elaborate complexity. 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.320 Ah, this may be a more apt analogy even than 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.680 you intended, because you remember, like how often in the 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.480 Paradiso Dante just talks about how like I couldn't describe 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:47.160 what I was seeing. 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.360 Yeah, it's just And certainly when you look at illustrations, 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:53.880 it's you know, you can have a pretty firm map 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:57.800 of of of the Inferno, pretty firm map of the 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:01.840 amount of purgatory. But yeah, Paradise, it's just this swirling 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.960 circles and interconnected wheels. Of course, any of these cinematic 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.200 examples we're looking at, yeah, they harken back to Metropolis. 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.160 Metropolis is the granddaddy of them all, and Metropolis is 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:14.600 one of those movies that just stands the test of time, 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:18.520 certainly worth taking a look at again. But while it 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.120 is one of the most popular, enduring and certainly sci 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:26.320 fi influential visions of skybridges and this interconnected skyscraper world, 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:32.800 that film, too, was continuing trends of futurism, which apparently 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:37.920 can be traced back to American folk artist Erastus Salisbury Field, 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:43.280 who lived eighteen oh five through nineteen hundred, so didn't 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:48.040 even live to see Metropolis, but he did this wonderfully 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:54.440 intriguing work titled Historical Monument of the American Republic, eighteen 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.320 sixty seven through eighteen eighty eight being the dates on 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.520 this piece, And definitely look this up. You can find 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.560 images of this online and Joe, I've included an image 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:04.440 of this for you here. 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.440 Oh okay, So I think this vision of the future 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:09.680 is that everyone will get to live in their own 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:10.760 Tower of Babbel. 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:15.760 Yeah, it is. It is very h brugal esque. I 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:19.480 would say these don't instantly read as skyscrapers to the 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.600 modern eye, but I mean there are certainly architectural features 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:26.680 here that you will see on modern tall buildings. But yeah, 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.000 this is this looks like a fantastic realm. 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:33.440 So, whereas in a more mundane age you have the 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:35.640 jealous competition with your neighbor for who can have the 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:39.280 prettier lawn or the fancier I don't know, satellite TV antenna, 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:42.160 in this case, you're competing to see who can kill 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:42.960 God first. 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:46.160 Yeah, and if they're going to pull it off, they're 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:48.400 going to do it from these what look to be 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:53.520 like penthouse temples, kind of Gozarian in their structure, that 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.680 are all connected by bridges and have just oodles of 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:00.240 statues at the top. I assume those are statues and 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.120 this is and they literally appear to be clouds swirling 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:03.680 around them. 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:04.879 I mean it's a cool drawing. 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.240 Yeah. Yeah. So this was created for the Philadelphia Centennial 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:14.000 Exhibition in eighteen seventy six and Wooden Sephariic, the authors 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.800 that I have referenced in the first episode. They say 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.200 that this image influenced a number of other artists, including 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:25.520 Charles R. Lamb and Vernon hoe Bailey, who created the 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:29.720 nineteen o eight Streets High in the Air illustrations. These 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.040 are also worth checking out, and Joe I have included 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:34.600 two examples of these for you. 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:35.960 Now. 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.200 These are not necessarily skybridges or skyways in the more 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.600 narrow sense that we were talking about earlier, of basically 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:46.880 an enclosed hallway that's got stuff all around. But these 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:50.800 are still interesting because they are ideas of the bridge 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:55.880 connecting skyscrapers buildings at height having a second level or 0:17:56.160 --> 0:18:00.359 maybe multiple levels of lateral connection. But here they're just 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:02.640 open streets. I mean that's interesting too. 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:05.760 Yeah, and you see a train moving through one of them, 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:10.480 like a great worm burrowing through this behemoth. Yeah. These 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.720 are impressive images that also have you know, maybe it's 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:15.920 the coloration, or at least the versions I have here, 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.520 Like one is definitely like a charcoal looking black and white, 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:24.000 and the other has this kind of washed out like 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.920 orange and brown tint to it. It makes it feel 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.360 kind of apocalyptic in some ways, but still this Yeah, 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:33.200 this was roughly twenty years before we'd see such images 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:37.080 in cinema. Another key twentieth century figure in all of 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:41.000 this was editor and publisher Moses King, who commissioned many 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:45.399 such images for King's Views of New York. This was 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:47.320 a book that came out, and I've included a cover 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.439 from this publication for you, Joe, and as you can 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:53.640 see this one's just crazy with it. They're just bridges 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:59.520 connecting all of these skyscrapers, skyscrapers that look more contemporary 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:02.920 for this time period. But then also flying machines galore. 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:07.320 Oh, your city's full of biplanes, well minds full of triplanes. 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:13.119 Yep, yep. I see some airships. Pretty fantastic looking. So 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.280 this is what would and Sophariic have to say in 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.680 their paper, and that paper again if anyone wants to 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:23.240 check that out, it is Skybridge is a history and 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.680 a view to the near future, they write. Quote. The 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:31.240 early Skybridge sky city portrayals came about as a direct 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.959 response to very real urban issues which were pressing at 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:38.760 the time. Primary of these urban issues was the impact 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:42.040 that both tall buildings and increased vehicular traffic were having 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:46.320 on the ground floor urban condition. Tall buildings were increasingly 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.760 growing in height and overcrowding the street, and the conflict 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:55.160 between pedestrian and the hicular traffic was increasing. The recurring 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:58.960 themes in all the early futuristic visions evolved as a 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:03.160 response to these problems, both the stepped back tiered skyscraper 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:07.920 and the multi level circulation system. The stepped back skyscraper 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:10.080 was seen as a way to preserve light and air 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.280 on congested, over developed New York streets, and the multi 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:17.280 level circulation system a practical organizational tool to handle the 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:20.840 vast number of new vehicles and people flooding into the city. 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:23.439 So to come in to rob, I don't think you 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:26.000 explained this one yet, but the idea of the stepped 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:30.560 back tiered skyscraper results also interesting. So you're imagining something well, actually, 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:33.760 this might explain the idea of the why the towers 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:36.800 in that drawing look like the tower of Babbel from Breugel, 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:40.760 you know that, like it's terraced I don't know what 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:43.199 you call it, stadium seating levels. You know they go 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.359 back each level, and this, I guess would let more 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:47.680 light into the city. 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:50.720 Right, I mean this will also factor into a few 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:55.040 other design issues that and engineering issues that were definitely 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:58.399 present in buildings of that time period. And sometimes it 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:00.080 was like the code of the city that if you 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.040 built it, you had to have upper levels step back 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:04.800 from the street a certain amount. 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:05.639 Interesting. 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.960 Now, another name to mention here American architect, illustrator and 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:14.000 poet Hugh Ferris, no connection to Gail Ferris, junior of 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:17.640 Ferris Wheel fame. Their last names are spelled differently, but 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:21.439 Hugh Ferris another big name who created some images for 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:25.800 nineteen twenty nine's The Metropolis of Tomorrow and Joe. If 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:30.119 you look at these, just beautiful art deco black and 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:35.359 white illustrations. These are pretty fabulous, Like this is Gotham City. 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:38.560 They make me think of the Oscar Statue for some reason. 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:39.760 Yeah, yeah, I. 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:46.480 Couldn't say why, but they are very pretty. 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:49.640 Yeah, So I guess I just want to drive home that. Yeah, 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:55.120 this craving for skybridges and interconnected skyscrapers like this, it's 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:57.520 kind of this mix of this attempt to solve practical 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:01.720 problems while also clearly to you know, to create beautiful 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:07.159 architecture to bring dreams into physical reality. And I imagine 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:12.879 there's a bit of push and pull between those those aspirations. 0:22:13.200 --> 0:22:15.760 Well, yeah, and I think you you know, we've talked 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:19.600 about some of the dystopian associations of skybridges in science fiction, 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:21.560 but they certainly don't have to have those, And in 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:25.119 some ways you could look at interconnecting higher levels of 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:30.560 buildings as a very positive social outcome, especially given that 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:34.320 it just looks like, the reality is urban population density 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:37.919 is probably going to continue to increase. You know, there 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:41.879 are strong urbanization trends worldwide. People are more often just 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:46.280 moving further into city centers. In twenty fifteen, fifty four 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:50.120 percent of the world's population lived in cities. The World 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.400 Health Organization estimates that by twenty fifty that number will 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:56.320 probably climb to about sixty six percent. It's hard to 0:22:56.320 --> 0:22:59.080