Very interesting, this:

http://gothamist.com/2009/08/07/coney_globe_tower.php

Did you hear the one about the Coney Island Globe Tower? Today the Library of Congress posted a bunch of old New York Tribune covers in their Flickr pool, one displaying the ambitious tower, where the plans for it were announced in May 1906. Inside, investors were offered "a ground floor chance to share profits in the largest steel structure ever erected...the greatest amusement enterprise in the whole world...the best real estate venture." The Globe Tower would cost around $1,500,000 to erect, and the man behind it, Samuel Friede, was looking for the means to make it happen....

For more on this, see:

http://www.westland.net/coneyisland/articles/globetower.htm

Nice article, Terpy!

The Globe would be divided into eleven floors, beginning 150 feet above the ground and spaced at intervals of fifty feet. The lowest or first level would feature a Pedestal Roof Garden with a popular priced restaurant, continuous vaudeville theater, roller skating rink, bowling alley, slot machines, etc. At the 250 foot level there would be an Aerial Hippodrome seating 5000 people. It would feature four large circus rings and four immense animal cages; each ring representing a different continent. Performances would be continuous and a miniature railroad would circle the arena's perimeter. The Globe's Main Hall would be located at the 300 foot level. Here would be the largest ballroom in the world and a moving restaurant enclosed in glass. A revolving strip twenty-five feet wide would carry tables, kitchens and patrons around the outer edge of the Tower to give the effect of eating in an airborne dining car. Diners would have a moving panoramic view of Coney Island, the countryside and Greater New York.

That would have been amazing.

That tower looks like it would have been an engineering marvel. Thanks for the article. Terpy.