How is the first floor of a 100 story building able to hold all that weight?

Question

How is the first floor of a 100 story building able to hold all that weight?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

The floor doesn’t. The load goes straight through the columns. Each floor only adds its own load to the columns.

The columns in a 100 story building can hold all that weight because they’re huge and made out of very strong materials – high strength concrete, high strength reinforcement, and high strength steel.