City Hall: The World's Largest Free-Standing Masonry Building

Philadelphia City Hall is the world's largest free-standing masonry building: its granite and brick walls, up to 22 feet thick, carry the building, and its tower rises 548 feet to the top of William Penn's statue. It is not the tallest masonry structure; the Washington Monument, at 555 feet, is taller. When completed in 1901 after 30 years of construction, it was the tallest occupied building on Earth. The 37-foot bronze statue of William Penn on top weighs 27 tons and can be seen from miles away. The building contains over 250 sculptures by Alexander Milne Calder. A "gentlemen's agreement" kept all buildings shorter than Penn's hat until 1987, when One Liberty Place broke the tradition.