When it was built, the Citicorps center had a high chance of falling down. The engineers fixed it without telling anyone!

The Citicorps Center was built in the 1970s in New York City. At it's completion it was the 7th tallest building in the world. William J. LeMessurier was the structural engineer on the project. Only a year after it was built it became apparent that the Citicorps Center could only withstand a sixteen-year-storm, meaning it had a one in sixteen chance that it would totally collapse every year.

Originally it was meant to be able to withstand a one in fifty-five-year-storm. The problem was easily a career ender for LeMessurier. Instead of ignoring the problem or simply committing suicide to get out of the problem, LeMessurier decided to take responsibility, but secretly.

He hatched a plan that involved workers to fix all 200 joints of the building's structure, hired people to oversee the work carefully and make sure it was done properly, and then hired 2,000 Red Cross workers to help evacuate the building should something have gone wrong. He managed to do it without anyone knowing for twenty years.

The information finally came out in the late 1990s and LeMessurier was able to keep his reputation sound and ended up making Citicorp Center the strongest building in the world able to withstand a 700-year-storm.

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