WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Skybridge, Part 1 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.079 Hey, you welcome to stuff to blow your mind. My 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:09.280 name is Robert Lamb. 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:12.280 And I'm Joe McCormick, and it is Saturday. Time to 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.960 go into the vault for an episode of Days Past. 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.840 This one originally aired on July twelfth, twenty twenty two, 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:23.560 and it was part one of our series on the Skybridge. 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:27.840 Yeah, I remember. We did this series after my family 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:30.440 went up to visit Chicago for a week and I 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.360 got inspired by all the wonderful skybridges up there. And 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.000 it's timely that we're recording this vault intro now because 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:38.080 my family just got back from a trip to Manhattan 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:41.319 where we went on another architectural boat tour and got 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:44.360 to see a whole bunch more skybridges along the way. 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:46.839 And yes, it's pretty magic. I'm still a huge sucker 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:48.479 for any skybridge. 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:50.360 Which city has better skybridges? 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.280 Oh, you can't go. You can't compare, You can't compare. 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:57.280 But I'm not going to get into a battle between 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:01.320 Chicago and New York City over skybridges. Have some real beauties. 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:05.479 But if anyone out there has an opinion, feel free 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.000 to vote. Will we can discuss this on listener Mail. 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:12.400 Episodes Tired, the Pizza Fight, Wired, the Skybridge Fight. 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:20.839 Yes, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:28.679 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. This 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:32.759 is Robert Lamb and I am Joe McCormick. So I've 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.679 been kicking around the idea of doing a skybridge episode 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:40.640 for a while. These have always captivated me whenever I've 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:43.679 looked at city scapes, both real city scapes and cities 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:48.080 that I've visited or lived in, but also just imagine cities, 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:53.680 fictional cities, futuristic cities that one encounters in various films. 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:58.000 These are, of course, we're talking about skybridges or sky 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:01.920 walks or you know, there are various terms one might 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:06.000 use for these. We're talking generally about enclosed bridges of 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:10.480 metal and glass or stone or other materials that connect 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:15.200 artificial heights to artificial heights. And I don't know about 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:17.320 it about you, Joe, if I don't think we've ever 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:22.440 talked about this. See if you share my interest in skybridges, 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:24.920 If you ever gaze up at a skybridge in a 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:26.920 city and just try and imagine what it would be 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:29.280 like to be up there in it looking out. 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.200 Oh absolutely, I mean there are a number of these 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:34.680 around the world, but they're rare enough that they still 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.600 they stick out when you see them, I guess, unless 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.119 you're in a city that has a lot of them, 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:44.080 like Calgary or something. But yeah, they look like something 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:48.320 that's the kind of obvious solution that you would expect 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:50.400 to see more of in the city that's full of 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:51.280 tall buildings. 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:54.200 Yeah, yeah, that we can. We'll certainly get into the 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.320 practical sides of the skybridge, but there's also something there's 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.480 something attractive about it that I find almost hard to 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:04.440 to put into words because on one level, yes, there's 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.120 a view that is available to one in a skybridge, 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.840 and generally speaking, you can often look in two directions 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:14.840 at once, and that's that's pretty neat. But by and large, 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:18.480 there's not a tremendous amount of difference between being on 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.440 the tenth floor of a building and looking out at 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.840 the city as opposed to being on a tenth floor 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.720 skybridge and looking out of the city. But for some reason, 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.399 if you gave me the choice between the two, the skybridge, 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:35.480 of course, is tremendously more attractive as an opportunity. 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.280 Well, and in a lot of recent sky bridges they've 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.200 started doing the thing where they make the bottom out 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:42.600 of transparent materials, you know, sometime tough glass, and of 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:44.320 course you know, the kids like to jump up and 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:45.920 down on it. That's always fun. 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:50.880 Yeah, And I think maybe with skybridge is too a 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.720 lot of a lot of what makes the skybridge attractive 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:57.200 and interesting, it's also it's actually wrapped up in a 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:01.920 deeper understanding of bridges, Like we're essentially taking our already 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:06.560 existing excitement for bridges, even though we see bridges all 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:08.640 the time, and maybe that gets kind of like pushed 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.240 down in our consciousness, but then it becomes new again 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.440 when we look at something like a skybridge, and also 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.320 skybridges kind of I think serve to exaggerate the feats 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.040 of skyscraper building. Like, for instance, if I'm looking at 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.200 just a normal skyscraper, it may be really impressive, but 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.479 if I see a little i don't know, like a 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:29.960 gargoyle up there or some sort of like little space 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:33.039 where a human being could potentially stand for some reason, 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.200 it draws me in more. Maybe look, there's an artificial 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.040 mountain aspect to it, and then seeing the bridge up 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:41.640 there kind of does much the same thing. Yeah, So 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.760 in this look at skybridges, we're gonna draw several different sources. 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:48.560 One of the main sources that are going to keep 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:52.680 coming back to, though, is a wonderful history overview of 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.640 skybridges titled Skybridge is a History in a View to 0:04:55.720 --> 0:05:00.240 the Near Future by Anthony Wood and Daniel Sapharik the 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.400 Council of Tall Buildings in Urban Habitat, published in twenty 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:07.560 nineteen in the International Journal of High Rise Buildings. The 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:11.760 authors here define a skybridge as quote a primarily enclosed 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.320 space linking two or more buildings at height, and they 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:17.880 make a point of looking at structures that are at 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.400 least six stories in high to set them apart from 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:25.560 other mere pedestrian bridges and overpasses, because I guess truly 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:27.919 the skybridge, or at least modern skybridges, have a different 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:31.240 feel altogether. Though some of the especially older examples we're 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:33.479 going to look at are not necessarily going to be 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:34.679 that high in the sky. 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:40.120 Yeah, especially a lot of the publicly accessible skybridges or 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:42.919 lower whatever you'd call the lower versions of them that 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:46.560 aren't like connecting two towers of essentially the same building 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.159 or buildings that have the same owner. Instead, they're forming 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.719 a walkway for people or pedestrians along a sort of 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.159 maybe like second story level in the city. I mentioned 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:00.839 the example of Calgary earlier. Calgary and can It has 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:04.560 an extensive network of what have sometimes been called skybridges 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.279 or skyways, but I think they're mostly on more like 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.480 the second story level, and and they're open to the public. 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:12.360 You know, people can walk all around in them. 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.599 Yeah. When you look at the overall history of skybridges, 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:21.160 it's a mix of of passageways for the elite, passageways 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.640 for everyone and uh and and sometimes you have kind 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.360 of like double deckers where well one floor is for 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:30.800 the residents, but the other floor is for tourists, so 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:32.840 that sort of thing. Also you have a mix of 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:35.880 some of some of these are still very much in operation, 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.600 some are not accessible currently. Now I was I was 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.640 recently in Chicago, and while I was there, this was 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.160 probably one of the reasons that I decided, Yeah, I 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.000 think now it's the time to go ahead into the 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:51.320 skybridge episode. Because I took one of these architectural tours 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.360 by boat in the city, which which I highly recommend. 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:57.919 It's a it's a city that's it's uh, it's steeped 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:01.400 in in architecture, and therefore, or if you understand the 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.160 architectural history of the city at least just a little bit, 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:07.599 you have I think, a much better understanding of what 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:11.400 Chicago is when you walk around it, drive around it, 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:15.120 et cetera. And one building in particular that you can't 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:19.000 help but notice is, of course, the Wriggly Building. And 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:25.000 indeed you have this beautiful fourteenth story skybridge connecting the 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.640 two sections, and at first glance you might think it's 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.680 made out of aluminum, but it's actually made out of 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:36.000 Allegheny nickel. So that's pretty interesting. But yeah, if you 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:38.400 look up pictures of the Wrigley Building, yeah you'll definitely 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:40.400 see this impressive skybridge. 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.080 It's trying to remember if this shows up in The Fugitive, 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:48.080 which is a movie that I deeply associate with Chicago architecture, 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:49.920 though I'm not quite sure why. I mean, obviously it's 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:52.520 in Chicago, I don't know what the architecture connection is. 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.520 I remember as a kid, I would look at pictures 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.840 of skybridges and think also, watching a lot of action 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.800 films back in the day, I kept thinking that there 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.720 had to be like a great action sequence where the 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.320 hero has to run through a skybridge, and maybe a 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:09.880 helicopter is firing at him in the skybridge, or maybe 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:13.520 there's a fight on top of the skybridge, and maybe 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:17.120 my memories faint on this. Maybe these things actually happened 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:19.800 in some movie or TV show. But if they didn't, 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.040 I'm surprised it never happened. It seems like the most 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:26.000 logical place, like a weird place, for some sort of 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.160 a fight to take place. Like why didn't we see 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:29.880 this in Highlander? 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:30.120 Right? 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.400 The answer is insurance problems. That was a scene they 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:35.640 wanted to shoot but they couldn't. 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.320 Probably, now, if anyone, if you're a New Yorker, or 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.040 certainly if you've even visited New York, you've seen multiple 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.400 examples of this. There are some great examples of both 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:48.640 old school and modern skybridges. You can look up lists 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:51.760 of these. I think there's at least one really picturesque 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:56.160 one that's the viewable from the high Line there. But then, 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:57.640 of course we don't have to go to New York 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:01.760 in order to experience a sky bridge, because Joe, we 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:05.360 live in Atlanta and we have a pretty noteworthy example 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:09.800 of skybridges or skyways as well, and that's Peachtree Center, 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:15.400 designed by Atlanta architect John C. Portman Junior. Portman lived 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:19.079 nineteen twenty four through twenty seventeen, and he's famed for 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:23.120 popularizing the atrium as well as just leaving a profound 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:27.840 mark on downtown Atlanta. And one of the things that 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.480 he also did is, especially again with Peachtree Center here 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:38.000 is we see this almost excessive use of skybridges and 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.080 skyways connecting these buildings to each other. 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:43.800 Yeah, if you drive around the city center streets, you 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:45.440 will see a number of these. 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:50.760 Yeah, they have a very seventies modern look to them, 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:56.520 so they're not the classical skybridges. They're not these super 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:58.840 modern looking ones you'll see in many of the examples today. 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:01.200 But this, this is an example we're going to come 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:04.160 back to later because it's actually with Portman's work that 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:07.360 we see some of the more pronounced social criticisms of 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.960 the basic concept of the skybridge, which are interesting to 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:14.280 get into. Now, another local example here in Atlanta, the 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:17.200 High Museum of Art has some great skybridges part of 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:20.440 the Rinzo Piano designed addition to the Core Museum in 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:22.320 two thousand and five. Joe, I know you've walked. 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:24.480 Through these oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:26.920 So there you always get some some brilliant sunlight. There's 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.320 all that beautiful white architecture going on. 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.520 I think I associate them with the sudden feeling of 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:34.479 being irradiated. 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:39.600 Because you've been in the climate because the climate control galleries, 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.559 and then suddenly, yeah, here's the sun now. Would in 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.079 Sopharik point out that the most common function of the 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.600 skybridge is of course, to convey traffic from one building 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.200 to another without forcing individuals to descend down to the 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:56.480 ground level or even below ground level, potentially exiting and 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.560 re entering the building, which, of course, if you're dealing 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:01.839 with special with a building that has some sort of 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:05.680 a security system in place and security check ins and checkpoints, 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:08.559 we can see where that would that could become problematic. 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:13.320 Easier to have people enjoy access to both buildings via 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:17.679 the bridge, and you also have situations where okay, maybe 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.120 we don't want people having to cross the street, deal 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.319 with traffic or adverse environmental conditions. 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:25.200 Yeah, I was trying to think what would be the 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:29.439 main factors motivating somebody to connect buildings via skybridge versus 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.240 just having people you enter an exit at the surface 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:34.240 level like they normally would. And yeah, those are some 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:35.800 of the main things that came to mind for me. 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.400 Bad weather and climate, that's got to be a motivator, 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.280 which is also true of places that have more underground 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:46.840 tunnels connecting buildings together. But then yeah, also bad traffic 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:50.080 and like thoroughfares that are hard to cross. So for example, 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:55.240 this would also include places where the where the streets 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:57.720 are not always streets, where there's not ground on the streets, 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:01.640 such as cities with canals sometimes skybridges to cross those. 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:04.560 And then of course security concerns like if you have 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.679 i don't know, high security government buildings or something imagined, 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:11.160 they try to limit the necessity to go outside and 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:13.000 enter a different door and do that whole thing all 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:13.520 over again. 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.760 Yeah, so obviously there are some basic reasons why you 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:22.280 might have a skybridge connecting to buildings. However, the authors 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:28.640 here also classify some skybridges as quote enclosed programmatic skybridges, 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:32.240 meaning that there's something about them, something inside them to 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:37.200 draw people to them beyond just mere conveyance. For example, 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.320 the one example they give is the American Copper Buildings 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:42.720 in New York City, built in twenty sixteen, which feature 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:47.280 a robust, two story skybridge full of common rooms and 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:48.960 swimming pools for residents. 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:51.640 It's a great place to go swimming. 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:56.680 Yeah, it's an interesting choice. I mean, it looks like 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:57.880 it has a tremendous view. 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:00.600 Though, I would imagine, yeah, view and just sort of 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:04.000 novelty has got to be one of the main points 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:09.360 for these enclosed programmatic skybridges, because again, they're not so 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:14.640 common connecting American buildings in American cities that you're just 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:17.640 numb to them. Now, like going into skybridge is kind 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.440 of interesting and unique, unless you know, you just happen 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:22.679 to be one of the few people who lives or 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:24.600 works in buildings where you cross one every day. 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:28.200 Yeah. Now, they also bring up a few additional expansions 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.880 on the form. One is something they called the sky plane, 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:35.200 and this is essentially a shared horizontal roof structure for 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.199 two or more buildings. And the example they bring up 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:43.280 is Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Joe, you should probably 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.439 just look up a picture of Marina Bay Sands and 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:48.640 just take this in because I would have to say, 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:53.240 I mean, I'm no judge of architecture here, but it 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:57.480 looks almost a little bit ridiculous. It looks like there 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:02.360 is a ship perched atop three identical skyscrapers. 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.319 Yes, it's a cruise ship. There is a cruise ship 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:06.400 on the buildings. 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.000 Yeah, which I mean. I guess it looks really cool 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.440 up there. It makes me a little bit queasy to 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.200 look at some of these aerial shots of it for 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:17.720 some reason. But yeah, it looks it looks very nice, 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:21.120 and I guess, and certainly we can imagine so that 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:23.040 we may come back to this one as we think 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:27.320 about some arguments to be made for similar structures. They 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:31.320 also bring up the idea of building as skybridge. So 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:34.960 this is when the horizontal bar of the skybridge is 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.240 so massive in comparison to the rest that it is 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.960 more of a defining part of the building itself rather 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:44.960 than something that bridges it. And this also is a 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:47.800 statement one could make about like the nature of the skybridge. 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:49.840 One of the examples will come to in a minute. 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:54.040 Either the skybridge is not really firmly set in place. 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.040 It's kind of setting in there, kind of slotted into place, 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.280 whereas building a skybridge, it's like it's all one structure. Sure. 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:05.320 The example they bring up is the CCTV headquarters in Beijing. 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:07.120 This is a building I believe it was built in 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:11.080 twenty eleven, and it looks basically like a really boxy 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.240 upside down you very cool design. 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:17.840 Yeah, i'd characterize it as it looks like it was 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.520 built out of the out of giant versions of the 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:24.520 L shaped Tetris blocks and they're connecting above the ground way, 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.480 you know, many many stories up. But yeah, it's clear 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:29.880 that this is not just a little hallway connecting the 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:33.760 upper levels of a skyscraper. A substantial portion of the 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.240 occupied part of the building is hanging over air. 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:40.360 Yeah. Yeah, And it also looks like it could walk 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:45.800 like two legs and a pelvis, but like they walked 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:47.640 out of the Tron universe or something. 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:51.040 If you offend the master control program, this building comes 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:51.960 walking at you. 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:53.080 It probably does. 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:59.680 Yeah. 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:03.080 Now you might be wondering, well, what's the highest skybridge 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.560 in the world. Well, I believe if the Guinness Book 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:08.680 of World Records is correct on this, it is the 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:14.600 Patronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. This is a 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.080 quote a double deck bridge at the forty first and 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:21.760 forty second floors. It's one hundred and seventy meters or 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.000 five hundred and fifty eight feet above the ground and 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:26.320 measures fifty eight meters or one hundred and ninety feet 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:30.360 in length, weighs seven hundred and fifty metric tons, and 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:34.400 this building opened in nineteen ninety four. This one is 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:35.640 really cool looking. 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:37.600 This is one of the ones I was talking about 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:43.800 earlier where it's essentially it's a connector between two towers 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.600 that are the same building. Like it's all one complex, 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.240 but the complex consists of like a you know, a 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:51.960 lower level thing, and then two towers going straight up 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.200 and they're connected in the at the middle of their 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:55.760 height by this skybridge. 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.120 Yeah, this one's an interesting one to look at too, 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.360 because first of all, it's so high up and at 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.640 the fortieth floor, you can imagine a good case being made, 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:07.560 like what if you need to get to the next tower, 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.680 you don't want to go down forty floors and then 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:12.840 up another forty floors, what if you could just walk 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:16.000 over And of course you can adjust the math based 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:18.240 on what floor you're trying to get to in each tower. 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:20.879 And I think it's an area of the complex that 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.200 has increased foot traffic because there's sort of a sky 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.760 lobby concept, like you go halfway up the towers and 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:32.720 there's it's not just more regular office occupancy. There are 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.040 I don't know, lobbies and things for people to hang 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:37.879 out and walk around and do at that level. 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.280 Yeah, and apparently one whole floor of it is is 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.000 open to tourists and as you know, part of this 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:46.760 lobby concept. The other is apparently closed off and more 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.800 for residents or businesses, what have you. But it's neat 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.879 that on top of this, not only is it mirror conveyance, 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:56.960 but also it adds at least a little bit of 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.879 structural support as well as a possible means of a 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.920 evacuating individuals from one tower into the other during an emergency. 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:07.960 Maybe not a primary function, but one that they've apparently 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:09.919 looked into, Like what if there was an emergency in 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:13.120 one tower but the other tower was still viable, That's 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:15.720 one way you could help get people out. It's also 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:20.199 interesting that this bridge is not directly connected to the buildings. 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:23.760 It's designed so that it can shift or slide in 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:28.160 and out of them to counterbalance building sway from the winds. 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:31.560 So that's I mean, this is something that I always 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.560 forget about skyscrapers and then I'm told about skyscrapers, and 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:36.040 it kind of wigs me out a little bit, the 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:39.439 idea that, yes, they're not just purely stationary. They have 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:41.080 a little give to them. There's a little bit of 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.400 sway involved, and certainly if you have a bridge connecting 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:48.880 to skyscrapers, you have to take that into account, all right. 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.520 So at this point I thought we might get into 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:53.560 some of the history of the skybridge. I mean, one 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:56.080 of the things about our look at skybridges here is 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.000 we're not going to be able to look at every 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:01.920 step in the We're not going to take you skybridge 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:05.159 by skybridge through human history. But we thought it might 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.160 be a good idea to hit on some key examples, 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:11.679 some of which are more historical in nature, and before 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:15.639 we get into some of the psychological aspects, before we 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:19.080 get into some of the futurist ideas that are tied 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:21.760 up with skybridges. And so a great place to start 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:23.560 is to travel to Italy. 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:26.320 Surely, I think maybe we should start by taking a 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.919 look at the Bridge of Size, or the Ponte de 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:34.720 Sospiri in Italian. You know, Suspiri, like Suspiria, like the 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:36.919 movie Size, the Size, This is. 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:39.000 A beautiful one. And this is one where if if 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:41.920 you look it up, you'll instantly recognize that you'll instantly 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:45.960 find yourself longing to be in a gondola with with 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:50.000 your beloved or some imagine beloved, perhaps with the glass 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:50.879 of wine in hand. 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:55.560 Very ironically romantic. I'll get to that. So the bridge 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:59.480 of size is a really interesting landmark in Venice, a 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:03.520 city that already is already unusual in many of its 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.800 thoroughfares because many of them are not streets but canals 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.439 navigated by boat. And one of these canals, known as 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.520 the Rio di Palazzo, is crossed over by a totally 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:19.679 enclosed limestone bridge connecting two buildings on either side. At 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:21.760 the level of what looks like about the second story. 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:27.680 It is covered with elaborate Baroque decorations, having been commissioned 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.639 by the Doge Marino Grimani. And no doge is a 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:35.200 word that had a meaning before before internet memes. It 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:37.760 has nothing to do with dogs. It was an office 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.000 in medieval and Renaissance Italy. It was like it was 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:42.919 kind of like being like a lord or some other 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.440 kind of executive. So it was this doge, Marino Grimani, 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:48.479 who commissioned it. I think it came up in the 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:53.240 early seventeenth century. Apparently it is tradition for couples to 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:56.399 kiss as they pass underneath the bridge in a boat 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:58.880 or I don't know if it's tradition, it's at least 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:01.439 something a lot of people do, I think, especially tourists, 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.320 and tourists are often taking pictures of themselves kissing with 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:07.520 this bridge in the background. You can probably find plenty 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:10.000 of those on the internet if you want. So, what 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:12.560 is the purpose of this hallway in the sky over 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:16.959 the canal that's causing people to spontaneously break out in kissing? 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.000 You might wonder wha you know, was it connecting two 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:22.840 wings of a library or an art museum, maybe so 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:27.640 people could move priceless antiques and books and artworks back 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:29.960 and forth in the rain without getting wet or something 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:32.959 like that. No, not at all. It was a bridge 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:38.520 connecting the Doge's palace and the inquisitors facilities within to 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:42.399 the prison on the other side of the canal. And 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:45.440 so it's called the bridge of size because of the 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:50.560 size of the doomed prisoners who walked within. Apparently conditions 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:53.520 in the prison were pretty nasty, so I've at least 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:57.439 read the allegation that being confined there frequently resulted in death. 0:21:57.600 --> 0:21:58.800