Uploaded May 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The world's smallest skyscraper wasn't supposed to be that way... depending on who you ask. When the Newby–McMahon Building in Wichita Falls, Texas was completed in 1919, investors were shocked. They'd put the equivalent of $3 million today into what was meant to be a 480-foot building. Instead, they got a 480-inch building, and it was their own fault. J.D. McMahon's blueprints used the symbol for inches in place of the symbol for feet, but signatories never bothered to check. He delivered on his promise to build a 480-inch skyscraper and legal challenges failed. When it comes to numbers, details matter.
#shorts #vsauce #education
The world's smallest skyscraper wasn't supposed to be that way... depending on who you ask. When the Newby–McMahon Building in Wichita Falls, Texas was completed in 1919, investors were shocked. They'd put the equivalent of $3 million today into what was meant to be a 480-foot building. Instead, they got a 480-inch building, and it was their own fault. J.D. McMahon's blueprints used the symbol for inches in place of the symbol for feet, but signatories never bothered to check. He delivered on his promise to build a 480-inch skyscraper and legal challenges failed. When it comes to numbers, details matter.
#shorts #vsauce #education
