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The\u00a0ground rumbled<\/a>\u00a0Friday beneath New York City, home to famous skyscrapers like the Empire State Building and One World Trade Center. Though buildings that can reach above 100 stories might seem especially vulnerable to earthquakes, engineering experts say skyscrapers are built with enough flexibility to withstand moderate shaking.<\/p>\n The\u00a04.8 magnitude quake<\/a>\u00a0on Friday morning was centered about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of the city in New Jersey. Aftershocks continued, with a 2.5 magnitude quake on Saturday morning. But no major damage had been reported to the city\u2019s mass transit system or its 1.1 million buildings.<\/p>\n Operators of the iconic 103-floor Empire State Building posted \u201cI AM FINE\u201d on Friday on the building\u2019s X<\/a> account.<\/p>\n New York\u2019s skyscrapers have been generally built to withstand winds and other impacts far greater than the earthquakes generally seen on the East Coast, said Elisabeth Malch, a managing principal at Thornton Tomasetti, a New York engineering firm that\u2019s done major work on the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and the Brooklyn Bridge, among other major city landmarks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe earthquake that we design for is one that\u2019s unlikely to happen. It\u2019s a thousand-year event,\u201d she explained. \u201cSo we don\u2019t expect it to happen more than once in a thousand years.\u201d<\/p>\n Skyscrapers, by design, are less susceptible to the ground-shaking action of earthquakes than shorter structures because they\u2019re made to sway ever so slowly and slightly to protect themselves against powerful, hurricane force winds, Malch said.<\/p>\n \u201cTaller buildings just are more flexible because they\u2019re designed for the push and pull from the wind, which has a bigger effect on tall buildings than the push and pull of an earthquake does,\u201d she explained. \u201cSo regardless of when it was designed, the wind continually tests them. It\u2019s a double check that they\u2019re strong enough and flexible enough to handle earthquakes.\u201d<\/p>\n Even the oldest skyscrapers are, by necessity, made of high strength concrete and steel to withstand the gravitational load on the massive structures, added Ahmad Rahimian, an executive vice president at the engineering firm WSP Global<\/a> who was involved in the construction of One World Trade Center, this hemisphere\u2019s tallest building, and The Shard in London, which is Europe\u2019s tallest building.<\/p>\n \u201cHigh rise buildings can be one of the safest places you can be in an earthquake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n More modern high rises also have dampers located on their roofs that can balance the sway and help absorb any shock from extreme events, added Borys Hayda, a managing principal at DeSimone Consulting Engineering, a New York firm that\u2019s been involved in renovating some of Manhattan\u2019s major hotels, theaters and other landmark buildings.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though there is only a small possibility for earthquakes here in New York, we as engineers have to design for all types of potential risk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n __<\/p>\n Associated Press writer Michael Hill contributed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nSubscribe to Impact Report, a weekly newsletter on the trends and issues shaping corporate sustainability. Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/div>\n