The Salisbury spire is glorious, but not quite perfect in its engineering.  The corner supports are visibly bent under the strain, and I think there's a false ceiling too, hiding some additional retrospective strengthening.

However, the only one that was taller was Lincoln-and that did fall down.  There's something rather heroic about the way these builders pushed their craft to the limits, as evidenced by some of the corrections they had to make later.

Another example, though not of a spire, is the West Front of Peterborough Cathedral.

If you think the porch looks like an afterthought, you'd be right.  From the right angle, you can see quite clearly that it's propping the whole thing up.