What is a successful businessman to do when he has all the money he could possibly want? In New York of the 1920s and 30s, the answer might well be to build the worlds tallest building. The problem was that others were doing the same thing, so while the latest “world’s tallest building” was being completed in 1929 – the 927-foot Bank of Manhattan at 40 Wall Street – auto magnate Walter Chrysler kept his plan to top it a secret. At the time of it’s completion it was not only the tallest building in the world, but the tallest structure as well, topping the then record-holding Eiffel Tower.

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