A passage, on page 27, from Rem Koolhaus's Delirious New York:

Like the elevator, each technological invention is pregnant with a double image: contained in its success is the specter of its possible failure.
The means of averting that phantom disaster are almost as important as the original invention itself.
(Elisha) Otis has introduced a theme that will be a leitmotiv of the island's future development: Manhattan is an accumulation of possible disasters that never happen.
posted by Arne at 3:37 PM