
The Runaway Skyscraper
- Reading level
- Easy
- Price
- Free
About the book
"The Runaway Skyscraper" by Murray Leinster is a science fiction short story first published in 1919. When the sun suddenly moves backwards across the sky, engineer Arthur Chamberlain realizes his Manhattan office building isn't moving through space—it's falling backward through time. The Metropolitan Tower and its 2000 inhabitants find themselves stranded thousands of years in pre-Columbian Manhattan. Now Chamberlain must organize the displaced office workers to survive while devising a daring plan to return them home.
- Science fiction
Updated September 2026. Public domain in the USA. Text and summary from Project Gutenberg eBook #17355. The Runaway Skyscraper on Wikipedia.











