Peep at Philadelphia City Hall, Philadelphia, PA:
City Hall Philadelphia was designed by Scottish-born architect John McArthur, Jr. and was constructed from 1871 until 1901 at a cost of $24 million. Designed to be the world’s tallest building, it was surpassed during construction by the Washington Monument and the Eiffel Tower, though it was at completion the world’s tallest habitable building. It is located at the geographic center of the City; traffic flows around it anti clockwise and it is effectively a traffic rotary in the center of the City. Its weight is borne by granite and brick walls up to 22 feet thick. The principal exterior materials are limestone, granite, and marble. It was the first modern building (excluding the Eiffel Tower) to be the world’s tallest and also was the first secular habitable building to have this record.