Europe does not have skyscrapers so it is possible.
Going horizontally requires ever faster speeds to have similar reach. Walking 3.5 MPH past 100 story buildings is the same as 175 MPH going past densely packed 2 story buildings. That’s why cities go vertical.
Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least 100 meters (330 ft)[1] or 150 meters (490 ft)[2] in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise buildings. Historically, the term first referred to buildings with between 10 and 20 stories when these types of buildings began to be constructed in the 1880s.[3] Skyscrapers may host offices, hotels, residential spaces, and retail spaces.
There are two dozen in Paris alone, going by the modern definition of a skyscraper being a narrow building at least 150m tall.
Every European city of size has a Central Business District which Americans would call "downtown".
That's an odd thing to say when we all have the same access to the internet, image search, Google Maps, or Europe itself.
My favorite though is as high and dense as possible and increase the likelihood that many people might even live and work within the same building. Connecting buildings on floors other than the ground floor is also something I'd love to see more of.
I'll steelman your argument to be "Europe has less skyscrapers than NYC" (which I think is true, IIRC).
If you need to get away with less super tall buildings, you need to spread out the density elsewhere; that is, have medium density everywhere. In US and Canada, we've decided that the suburbs are untouchable, so the only solution is to have super tall buildings in a few areas. That's how you get 30 story apartments literally next to 2 story houses [0]. This is an intentional choice. I think it's the wrong one, but overcoming it is going to take a lot of convincing.
0 - https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-stock-photo-aerial-view-of...
Not in Metro Vancouver! Of buildings >= 500' in height, 7 are in Burnaby, 4 are in Vancouver, and 1 each are in Coquitlam and Surrey; under construction are another 4 in Burnaby, 3 in Vancouver, and 1 in New Westminster. There's a dense urban core surrounded by SFHs and then as soon as you cross the border into the suburbs you suddenly get density again.
No, it’s an island. You can’t build horizontally on an island very much.
That said I was under the impression much of Manhattan island was on top of bedrock. Of course a few hundred billion tons does add weight… but unlike one of our House of Reps members might believe, this will not “tip Manhattan over!