A couple times a week, I step inside a metal box and push a button that seals me inside.

Sometimes I do this with total strangers, and we rarely talk about it.

We just stand in silence while a system of

cables transports us up and down a concrete shaft. It's my four-story apartment building,

and we are in the elevator. If your elevator works well, it's easy to take it for granted.

But some people think about these machines all day. Yeah, we're not

really seen until you know about us. We're kind of like leprechauns in that way, right? You know,

you're talking about elevators and you start seeing an Otis truck here. And all of a sudden,

you're like, oh my gosh, they're everywhere. My name is Shannon Moore, and I'm a service mechanic for the local eight union

elevator constructors. Moore is right. Elevators are everywhere. In the U.S., there are around a million

of them, and 10,000 new ones are built every year. Manufacturing and installing all of these elevators is a lucrative

industry, and behind the scenes, it takes thousands of workers, and quite literally, tons of technology

to make sure your journey to the top is a smooth one.

Elevators, I think, are a lot like Wi-Fi.

You never hear anybody say, oh, yeah, this signal's really great, but everybody notices when they're not working.

For the Freakonomics Radio Network, this is the economics of everyday things.

I'm Zachary Crackett.

Today, elevators.

The earliest predecessors of elevators go back thousands of years.

In ancient Rome, winches and counterweights were used to transport lions, wolves, and bears

from underground tunnels into the Coliseum for Gladiator battles. These systems were powered by

animals, or even people.

...