97. Elevators

The Economics of Everyday Things

Americans take more than 20 billion elevator rides every year — and keeping them safe is an expensive proposition. Zachary Crockett makes small talk.

• SOURCES:
  • Frank Christensen, president of the International Union of Elevators Constructors.
  • Shannon Moore, service mechanic for the International Union of Elevator Constructors Local 8.
  • Brian O'Connell, senior vice president of the Eastern U.S. at Otis Elevators.
  • Stephen Smith, executive director of the Center for Building in North America.

• RESOURCES:
  • "Elevators," by Stephen Smith (Center for Building in North America, 2024).
  • "Elevator and Escalator Fact Sheet," (National Elevator Industry, 2020).
  • "The Evolution of Elevators: Physical-Human Interface, Digital Interaction, and Megatall Buildings," by Stephen Nichols (Frontiers of Engineering, 2017).
  • Lifted: A Cultural History of the Elevator, by Andreas Bernard (2014).

• EXTRAS:
  • "Up and Then Down," by Nick Paumgarten (The New Yorker, 2008).
  • "World's Tallest Towers."