Day 652

Modeled after St. Mark's Campanile in Venice, the Met Life Tower (at right) was the world's tallest building from 1909 to 1913. Notice the scaffolding on the north side; the tower is currently being converted into a hotel.

The odd-looking stump of a building to its left was originally designed to be a soaring, 80- to 100-floor skyscraper that would return the title of World's Tallest Building to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, but those plans faltered after the stock market crash of 1929. The 28-story structure that exists today is essentially just the base of the skyscraper that never was.