China’s Shanghai Tower is the second tallest building in the world, at 2,073 feet, nearly 800 feet taller than the Empire State Building. Because it’s built in an earthquake zone, the building has a massive foundation with 980 foundation piles driven into the ground as deep as 282 feet, with 2.15 million cubic feet of reinforced concrete as part of a 20-foot-thick foundation mat.

It has the highest observation deck in the world on the 119th floor, offering breathtaking views of the sprawling city below. Millions will visit the observation deck annually, taking a high speed elevator that gets them to the top in forty seconds. It is truly an engineering marvel.

I’d venture to guess that the thousands that visit the observation deck daily aren’t worried about whether the foundation is properly built and can handle such a massive structure.

This isn’t 12th century Italy.