A little wonder, every day

A 75-storey house of cards

AI-generated cover of a fictional tall house of cards; not Bryan Berg’s 1992 structure and not an exact 75-level count. Prompt: “Photorealistic vertical 4:5 editorial cover of an exceptionally tall, delicate house of cards rising from a tabletop, intricate repeating card levels, classic playing cards with blank or abstract non-readable backs, warm studio light and shallow depth of field. Fictional structure, not Bryan Berg's 1992 record build and no exact 75-level count implied. No readable text, logos, people or numbers.” Generated 20 October 2026.

AI-generated illustration of hands building a small house of cards; fictional demonstration, not Berg or his record structure. Prompt: “Photorealistic vertical 4:5 editorial close-up of careful hands building a small house of cards on a table, a few stacked decks nearby, shallow depth of field, warm workshop light. Generic demonstration, not Bryan Berg or his 1992 record structure. No text, logos, readable card faces or numbers.” Generated 20 October 2026.

documentary photograph of a six-storey house of cards made from 3.5 decks; not Bryan Berg’s 1992 record structure. Original page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Card_castle6.JPG. Creator Merzperson (English Wikipedia). Dedicated to the public domain by its author. Attribution is not required; courtesy credit: Merzperson via Wikimedia Commons.

documentary photograph of a life-size house of cards on a Baltimore sidewalk, 1 April 2017; not Berg’s structure. Original page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Life-size_House_of_Cards.jpg. Creator Crystal Vance (Wikimedia username Literallyme95). CC BY-SA 4.0; attribution: Crystal Vance, “Life-size House of Cards,” CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.

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AI-generated cover of a fictional tall house of cards; not Bryan Berg’s 1992 structure and not an exact 75-level count. Prompt: “Photorealistic vertical 4:5 editorial cover of an exceptionally tall, delicate house of cards rising from a tabletop, intricate repeating card levels, classic playing cards with blank or abstract non-readable backs, warm studio light and shallow depth of field. Fictional structure, not Bryan Berg's 1992 record build and no exact 75-level count implied. No readable text, logos, people or numbers.” Generated 20 October 2026.

Listen to fact0:00 / —

In 1992, 19-year-old Bryan Berg built the tallest house of cards at the time in Spirit Lake, Iowa: 75 storeys. The supplied list misstates this as 75 decks; Guinness reports 75 storeys, not decks.