★★★★★ 5.0
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Empire State Building
The morning of May 1st, 1931, and in a Washington D.C. office hundreds of miles away, President Herbert Hoover's finger hovers over a simple switch. At exactly that moment, the lights of this towering giant behind you blaze to life for the very first time, while Al Smith's granddaughters cut the ribbon at your feet on 34th Street. What you're witnessing rose from the ashes of the legendary Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in just 410 days... faster than any skyscraper before or since. At peak construction, 3,500 workers built more than one story per day, though 48 souls paid the ultimate price for this Art Deco miracle. The limestone and steel facade soaring 1,250 feet above contains 57,000 tons of structural steel and 10 million bricks. Step inside this Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon masterpiece, and you'll find 67 elevators ready to whisk you to observatories on the 86th and 102nd floors. Ironically, this "Eighth Wonder of the World" earned the nickname "Empty State Building" during the Depression, taking nearly twenty years to turn its first profit.
Did You Know?
- Built in just 410 days during the Great Depression, the Empire State Building was completed ahead of schedule and under budget, with construction crews—including fearless Mohawk ironworkers—installing up to 4.5 floors per week, a record-breaking feat for a skyscraper of its size.
- The Empire State Building was the world’s tallest building for 40 years, from its opening in 1931 until 1971, and became instantly iconic in popular culture thanks to its starring role in the 1933 film 'King Kong,' where the giant ape famously climbs its facade.
- On a foggy opening day (May 1, 1931), President Herbert Hoover symbolically turned on the building’s lights from Washington, D.C., while guests on the 86th-floor observation deck—including future President Franklin D. Roosevelt—celebrated despite the view being obscured by mist, with the Statue of Liberty 'lost in the mist'.