Description
The Empire State Building is the Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan that most people picture when they think of New York: a tower of pale limestone, 102 stories and 1,250 feet to the roof, with an observatory at the top.
The best view is from the 86th-floor observatory, where an open-air terrace runs all the way around the tower. Higher up, the small 102nd floor has windows from floor to ceiling. An indoor observatory on the 80th floor joined them in 2019.
Downstairs, the Art Deco lobby on Fifth Avenue is worth a look too: an aluminum relief of the tower sends out rays like a sun. At night, the lights on the spire change with holidays, home teams and farewells.
In 1929 it was one of three New York skyscrapers racing for the sky, and the Chrysler Building had just pulled a trick: a steel spire, assembled in secret and raised through its roof. John J. Raskob, the money behind the Empire State, answered with more floors, then a mast on top, meant for mooring airships.
The airships never came. In 1931 a Navy blimp tried to dock, was tossed around by the gusts and spilled its ballast water on the streets. But the race was won.
Demolition of the old Waldorf-Astoria hotel on the site began in October 1929, and a few weeks later Wall Street crashed. Raskob and former governor Al Smith went ahead anyway.
The builders managed up to four and a half floors a week, with Irish and Italian immigrants and Mohawk ironworkers from Kahnawake, near Montreal, up on the beams. Smith shot the last rivet himself, in solid gold.
It opened on May 1, 1931, and hardly anyone moved in: in the middle of the Depression only 23 percent of the offices were rented. New Yorkers called it the "Empty State Building."
The view paid the bills: in the first year a million people spent a dollar each to ride up. In 1933 King Kong climbed the spire, and more than 250 films and series have followed him.
Don't miss
• The 86th-floor terrace.
• The 102nd floor.
• The Art Deco lobby.
• The spire's lights at night.
Did you know?
• In 1945 a B-25 bomber lost in the fog hit the 79th floor; elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver fell 75 stories in her cabin and survived.
• The building is so big that it has its own ZIP code, 10118.
• When Frank Sinatra died in 1998, the spire was lit blue for "Ol' Blue Eyes."
The best view is from the 86th-floor observatory, where an open-air terrace runs all the way around the tower. Higher up, the small 102nd floor has windows from floor to ceiling. An indoor observatory on the 80th floor joined them in 2019.
Downstairs, the Art Deco lobby on Fifth Avenue is worth a look too: an aluminum relief of the tower sends out rays like a sun. At night, the lights on the spire change with holidays, home teams and farewells.
In 1929 it was one of three New York skyscrapers racing for the sky, and the Chrysler Building had just pulled a trick: a steel spire, assembled in secret and raised through its roof. John J. Raskob, the money behind the Empire State, answered with more floors, then a mast on top, meant for mooring airships.
The airships never came. In 1931 a Navy blimp tried to dock, was tossed around by the gusts and spilled its ballast water on the streets. But the race was won.
Demolition of the old Waldorf-Astoria hotel on the site began in October 1929, and a few weeks later Wall Street crashed. Raskob and former governor Al Smith went ahead anyway.
The builders managed up to four and a half floors a week, with Irish and Italian immigrants and Mohawk ironworkers from Kahnawake, near Montreal, up on the beams. Smith shot the last rivet himself, in solid gold.
It opened on May 1, 1931, and hardly anyone moved in: in the middle of the Depression only 23 percent of the offices were rented. New Yorkers called it the "Empty State Building."
The view paid the bills: in the first year a million people spent a dollar each to ride up. In 1933 King Kong climbed the spire, and more than 250 films and series have followed him.
Don't miss
• The 86th-floor terrace.
• The 102nd floor.
• The Art Deco lobby.
• The spire's lights at night.
Did you know?
• In 1945 a B-25 bomber lost in the fog hit the 79th floor; elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver fell 75 stories in her cabin and survived.
• The building is so big that it has its own ZIP code, 10118.
• When Frank Sinatra died in 1998, the spire was lit blue for "Ol' Blue Eyes."