Latting Observatory

The Latting Observatory was a wooden tower in New York City built as part of the 1853 Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, adjoining the New York Crystal Palace. It was located on the North side of 42nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue across the street from the site of present-day Bryant Park. Conceived by Waring Latting and designed by architect William Naugle, the observatory was an octagonally-based, iron-braced wooden tower 315 feet (96 m) high adjoining the Crystal Palace, with landings at three levels on the structure, allowing visitors to see into Queens, Staten Island and New Jersey. The tower, taller than the spire of Trinity Church at 290 feet (88 m), was the tallest structure in New York City from the time it was constructed in 1853 until it burnt down in 1856. The tower's base was a 75-foot square, tapering to a top of six to eight feet. It could handle up to 1,500 people at a time.

The Latting Observatory was an inspiration for the Eiffel Tower.

Engineer Eiffel acknowledged that the origin of the idea for an observation tower "came from America" but that his tower in Paris improved upon the American version in several ways. The Latting Observatory was built "without regard for beauty of form and purely for commercial purpose" in contrast to the Eiffel Tower, built some fifty years later with attention to form.

The tallest building in the United States during its brief existence, and described afterwards as "New York's first skyscraper", the building's base featured shops and three landings, at 125, 225, and 300 feet, where telescopes allowed tourists to peer over their surroundings. The original specifications of the observatory called for a steam elevator to be installed to service all three heights, but that would have been unprecedented, since the tallest elevator then in existence was only 75 feet high. None of the accounts of the tower mention steam elevators, and so it would appear that they were never installed. Ascent was possible using winding stairways with several intermediate landings. In announcing the July 1, 1853 opening of the observatory to invited guests, a writer for The New York Times described that he "was not prepared for the wonderful panorama" which was said to reach from 40 to 60 miles, providing an incomparable view unavailable in London, Paris or from atop the Great Pyramid of Giza, as the tower rises in "the midst of a human hive, whose bees are the best in the world's apiary." The ascent to the top of the structure was described as "fatiguing, but it improves digestion."

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