High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Through history, the title of "world`s tallest building" has been borne by various buildings. Since the invention of the skyscraper, New York City was home to the world`s tallest building for roughly 87 years (inside the period of 1870-1974, over nearly a dozen successive buildings). Chicago accumulated 30 years. This distinction was held exclusively within the United States for nearly 130 years (1870-1998) before returning to the eastern hemisphere. Preceding the current era of commercial skyscrapers, there was an era where the tallest buildings were Christian churches/cathedrals (1200s-1870), dominated by England and Germanic territories. And the era preceding this was the thousands of years where the Great Pyramid in Cairo was the tallest structure in the world. Other claims are made to "tallest structure" during the latter two eras, depending upon definitions applied, notably the Washington Monument (1884), which was surpassed in height by the Eiffel Tower in Paris (1889).