Эмпайр стэйт билдинг

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Empire State Building  history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

History of «Empire State Building»

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Its upper tower was originally designed as a mooring mast for airships.

Blimp near the mooring mast. (Credit: New York Daily News Archive / Contributor)

By far the most unusual aspect of the Empire State Building’s design concerned its 200-foot tower. Convinced that transatlantic airship travel was the wave of the future, the building’s owners originally constructed the mast as a docking port for lighter-than-air dirigibles. The harebrained scheme called for the airships to maneuver alongside the building and tether themselves to a winching apparatus. Passengers would then exit via an open-air gangplank, check in at a customs office and make their way to the streets of Manhattan in a mere seven minutes. Despite early enthusiasm for the project, the high winds near the building’s rooftop proved all but impossible for pilots to negotiate. The closest thing to a “landing” came in September 1931, when a small dirigible tethered itself to the spire for a few minutes. Two weeks later, a Goodyear blimp dropped a stack of newspapers on the roof a part of a publicity stunt, but the airship plan was abandoned shortly thereafter.

A few daredevils have parachuted from the building’s observation deck.

Credit: NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images

In April 1986, British thrill seekers Alastair Boyd and Michael McCarthy concealed parachutes under their coats, bought tickets to the Empire State Building and then hurled themselves off its 86th floor observation deck. The pair landed safely more than 1,000 feet below on 33rd Street, but while McCarthy was quickly arrested, Boyd simply hailed a cab and escaped. He soon turned himself in, however, and both men were charged with “reckless endangerment” and “unlawful parachuting.” Twelve years later, Norwegian parachutist Thor Alex “The Human Fly” Kappfjell repeated the stunt by jumping off the building’s 34th street side. Kappfjell managed to escape and parachute off the Chrysler Building a few days later, but he was eventually arrested after jumping off the World Trade Center.

There was a short-lived plan to add 11 floors to the Empire State Building.

Credit: Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images

Shortly after the World Trade Center towers were erected in the early 1970s, an architect at the firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon concocted a scheme that would allow the Empire State Building to keep its crown as the world’s tallest skyscraper. The proposed plan called for the building’s 16-story tower to be demolished and replaced by a new top section that would increase its height to 113 stories and 1,495 feet. If completed, the renovation would have made the Empire Building taller than both the World Trade Center and the Sears Tower—which was then under construction—but the idea was quickly dropped due to cost concerns and complaints that it would destroy the building’s iconic look.

История Эмпайр Стейт Билдинг

Здание Эмпайр Стейт-Билдинг находится по адресу: Нью-Йорк, Пятая авеню,350. Эта часть Манхеттена и сейчас считается очень престижной. Небоскребы, которых здесь достаточно, лишь еще больше подчеркивают респектабельность этого района.

Нью-Йорк и Чикаго стали первыми городами, где началось строительство высотных зданий. Тому было много причин. Во-первых, уже активно применялись технические новшества — легкая строительная арматура, скоростные лифты, ленточный фундамент и т. д. Во-вторых, с конца XIX века цена на землю была достаточно высока, поэтому строительство многоэтажных зданий оказалось экономически выгодным. Но, несмотря на более низкую цену, размещение офиса в небоскребе было и остается до сих пор очень престижным. Сейчас, чтобы снять офис в небоскребе, надо заплатить гораздо больше, чем за подобные апартаменты в обычном здании.

Современный Эмпайр Стейт-Билдинг построен на месте, где с 1860 года находился центр для местной аристократии. Тогда здесь стояли два знатных дома, принадлежавших членам богатейшей семьи Астор. В последствие, здесь были построены отели «Уолдорф» и «Астория». Эти два отеля функционировали в 90-х годах XIX века. В 1929 году оба отеля были разрушены, для того, чтобы расчистить площадку для строительства Эмпайр Стейт-Билдинг.

Здание возведено на двухэтажном фундаменте (чтобы небоскреб был более устойчивым) и поддержано стальной конструкцией весом в 54 400 тонн. На строительство потрачено десять миллионов кирпичей и 700 километров кабеля. Строительство возглавлял Джон Якоб Раскоб (создатель компании «Дженерал Моторс»). Проект выполнила архитектурная фирма «Шрив, Лэм и Хармон».

Здание было выстроено просто с неслыханной скоростью. Чуть больше полутора лет 38 бригад строителей (по 5 человек в каждой) монтировали каркас небоскреба из огромного количества металлических балок, которые доставляли на стройку по специально построенной железной дороге. Строительство было очень сложным и рискованным: каждый день рабочим приходилось балансировать на узких балках этого каркаса.

Небоскреб рос буквально на глазах. Каждую неделю строились примерно четыре с половиной этажа, а в наиболее интенсивный период за 10 дней были возведены 14 этажей. Все здание было построено за 1 год и 45 дней.

1 мая 1931 года состоялось официальное открытие Эмпайр Стейт-Билдинг, получившего статус самого высокого здания на нашей планете, обогнав предыдущего рекордсмена — штаб-квартиру автомобильной корпорации «Крайслер».

Время открытия небоскреба совпало великой экономической депрессией. Не многие могли позволить снять себе офис в этом здании. Тогда здание даже прозвали «Пустой-стейт-билдинг» (Empty State Building). Прошло десять лет, пока все помещения, наконец, были сданы.

Сначала создатели небоскреба планировали построить плоскую крышу, чтобы устроить здесь площадку для дирижаблей. Но впоследствии от этой идеи отказались: и площадка — дорогое удовольствие, да и дирижабли выходили и моды. В 1950 году небоскреб решено было надстроить: на крыше установили небольшую телебашню, высотой в 447 метров.

Название небоскреба Эмпайр Стейт-Билдинг происходит от слов «билдинг», что по-английски означает «здание» или «строение». «Эмпайр стейт» (с английского переводится как «штат-империя») — это неофициальное название штата Нью-Йорк.

Небоскреб быстро приобрел печальную славу, поскольку оказался очень привлекательным для самоубийц. Первый суицид произошел в 1933 году, спустя всего 3 года после открытия. В том же году на экраны вышел фильм «Кинг-Конг», и образ этого здания оказался прочно связанным в сознании миллионов зрителей с огромным чудовищем, взбирающимся по стенам небоскреба. В довершение ко всему, в 1945 году из-за плохой видимости в 79-й этаж врезался самолет. Погибли 14 человек, а ущерб составил один миллион долларов. Тогда стали поговаривать, что небоскреб Эмпайр Стейт-Билдинг чуть ли не дьявольское изобретение. Правда, преуспевающие бизнесмены все это называли полнейшей чушью и продолжали бороться за право снять офис в самом респектабельном здании Манхеттена.

В 1986 году зданию Эмпайр Стейт-Билдинг присвоен статус национального памятника архитектуры. Ежегодно его посещает более 35 000 туристов, не считая того, что в самом здании работает более 50 000 человек.

Уже не одно десятилетие Эмпайр Стейт-Билдинг считается символом Нью-Йорка и всего американского государства.

В песне и фильме

С 12 октября 1896 года, The Empire State Express , короткий документальный фильм сделан в экспериментальной 68мм американской мутоскоп компании процесса, премьера в Olympia Music Hall Театр Гаммерштейна в Нью — Йорке. Фильм был охарактеризован критиками того времени как «величайший вид на поезд из когда-либо сделанных».

В 1965 году блюзовый певец и гитарист Эдди Джеймс «Сын» Хаус-младший , в то время служащий Центрального Нью-Йорка, записал «Empire State Express» на Нью-Йоркском фольклорном фестивале:

Спустился на вокзал,

Прислонился к двери.

Спустился на вокзал,

Я … прислонился к двери.

Я знал, что это Эмпайр Стейт,

Могу сказать по тому, как она дует.

№ 999, хранящийся в статической экспозиции Музея науки и промышленности в Чикаго, фото 2003 года.

Спросил агента депо,

«Пожалуйста, позвольте мне покататься на жалюзи».

Спросил агента депо,

«Пожалуйста, позвольте мне покататься на жалюзи».

Он сказал: «Сынок, мне нравится помогать тебе … ты знаешь,

Но Эмпайр Стейт не мое «.

Эмпайр Стейт … вы знаете, она,

Едет по восточному времени.

Эмпайр Стейт,

Она едет по восточному времени,

Она самый «подвижный» ребенок,

На центральной линии Нью-Йорка.

отрывок из «Эмпайр Стейт Экспресс» Сон Хаус

№ 999 послужил источником вдохновения для одноименного космического корабля в форме парового двигателя в серии манги и анимационных фильмов Galaxy Express 999 .

Песня Лайла Ловетта 2007 года «This Traveling Around» включает в себя куплет:

И это 999,

Это так быстро, что ты не видишь.

И это 999,

Это так быстро, что ты не видишь.

Члены чикагской группы Empire State Express (ESE) вдохновились названием своего проекта как песней Son House (основной продукт живых выступлений ESE), так и статической экспозицией № 999 в Чикагском музее науки и промышленности. Дебютный EP группы 2009 года был назван «Land Speed ​​Record» в честь наследия поезда.

Design features

Entrance lobby

Unlike most of today’s high-rise buildings, the Empire State Building features a classic facade. The modernistic, stainless-steel canopies of the entrances on Thirty-third and Thirty-forth Streets lead to two-story-high corridors around the elevator core, crossed by stainless steel and glass-enclosed bridges at the second floor level. The elevator core contains 67 elevators.

There are various setbacks in the building’s design, as required by New York City’s Zoning Resolution of 1916. The main purpose for the law was to reduce shadows cast by tall buildings. These setbacks give the building its unique tapered silhouette.

The lobby is three stories high and features an aluminum relief of the skyscraper without the antenna, which was not added to the spire until 1952. The north corridor contains eight illuminated panels, created by Roy Sparkia and Renée Nemorov in 1963, depicting the building as the Eighth Wonder of the World alongside the traditional seven.

Red and green floodlights during Christmas

Long-term forecasting of the life cycle of the structure was implemented at the design phase to ensure that the building’s future intended uses were not restricted by the requirements of future generations.

Floodlights illuminate the top of the building at night, in colors chosen to match seasonal and other events, such as Christmas and Independence Day. After the eightieth birthday and subsequent death of Frank Sinatra, for example, the building was bathed in blue light to represent the singer’s nickname «Ol’ Blue Eyes.»

The floodlights bathed the building in red, white, and blue for several months after the destruction of the World Trade Center, then reverted to the standard schedule. In June 2002, during the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, New York City illuminated the Empire State Building in purple and gold (the monarchical colors of the Royal House of Windsor). After the death of actress Fay Wray in late 2004, the building stood in complete darkness for 15 minutes in commemoration of her famous role in the movie King Kong, in which the building was prominently featured.

The Empire State Building has one of the most popular outdoor observatories in the world, having been visited by over 110 million people. The 86th floor observation deck offers impressive 360-degree views of the city. There is a second observation deck on the 102nd floor that is open to the public. It was closed in 1999, but reopened in November 2005. Completely enclosed and much smaller, it may be closed on high-traffic days.

Использование как терминала для дирижаблей

В начале эксплуатации здания его шпиль задумывалось использовать в качестве причальной мачты для дирижаблей. 102-й этаж был причальной платформой со сходнями для подъёма на дирижабль. Специальный лифт, курсирующий между 86-м и 102-м этажами, мог использоваться для транспортировки пассажиров. Регистрация, по задумке, производилась на 86 этаже. Однако идея воздушного терминала была признана несостоятельной ввиду соображений безопасности (сильные и нестабильные воздушные потоки наверху здания делали причаливание очень сложным, и после первой попытки стало понятно, что эта идея утопична). Ни один цеппелин так и не причалил к зданию. В 1952 году на месте терминала было размещено телекоммуникационное оборудование.

The building was finished in record time.

Construction of the Empire State Building (Credit: Daniel Ahmad/Wikimedia Commons)

Despite the colossal size of the project, the design, planning and construction of the Empire State Building took just 20 months from start to finish. After demolishing the Waldorf-Astoria hotel—the plot’s previous occupant—contractors Starrett Brothers and Eken used an assembly line process to erect the new skyscraper in a brisk 410 days. Using as many as 3,400 men each day, they assembled its skeleton at a record pace of four and a half stories per week—so fast that the first 30 stories were completed before certain details of the ground floor were finalized. The Empire State Building was eventually finished ahead of schedule and under budget, but it also came with a human cost: at least five workers were killed during the construction process.

Background

The present site of the Empire State Building was first developed as the John Thomson Farm in the late eighteenth century. The block was occupied by the original Waldorf Hotel in the late-nineteenth century and was frequented by the social elite of New York.

The Empire State Building was designed by the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which produced the building drawings in just two weeks, possibly using its earlier design for the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, Ohio as a basis. The general contractors were Starrett Brothers and Eken, and the project was financed by John J. Raskob and Pierre S. DuPont. The construction company was chaired by Alfred E. Smith, a former Governor of New York.

A woman survived a 75-story plunge in one of the building’s elevators.

During the 1945 bomber crash, several pieces of the B-25’s engine sliced through the Empire State Building and entered an elevator shaft. The cables for two cars were severed, including one containing a 19-year-old elevator operator named Betty Lou Oliver. The elevator plummeted from the 75th floor and soon crashed into the subbasement, but luckily for Oliver, more than a thousand feet of severed elevator cable had gathered at the bottom of the shaft, cushioning the blow. The fall may have also been slowed by a pocket of compressed air generated by the car’s rapid descent. Despite suffering severe injuries including a broken neck and back, Oliver survived.

Construction

Worker bolting beams during construction.

Excavation of the site began on January 22, 1930, and construction on the building itself started on March 17. The project involved 3400 workers, mostly immigrants from Europe, along with hundreds of Mohawk Nation iron workers. According to official accounts, five workers died during the construction.

The construction was part of an intense competition in New York for the title of the world’s tallest building. Two other projects vying for the title, 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building, were still under construction when work began on the Empire State Building. Both would hold the title for less than a year, as the Empire State Building had surpassed them upon its completion, just 410 days after construction commenced. The building was officially opened on May 1, 1931 in dramatic fashion, when United States President Herbert Hoover turned on the building’s lights with the push of a button from Washington, D.C..

A series of setbacks causes the building to taper off with height.

The Empire State Building rises to 1,250 feet at the one-hundred-and-second floor, and its full structural height (including broadcast antenna) reaches 1,453 feet and eight and nine-sixteenth inches. The building is typically described as being 102 stories tall, although it has only 85 stories of commercial and office space (2,158,000 square feet), with an observation deck on the 86th floor. The remaining 16 stories represent the spire, which supports the broadcast antenna on top. The Empire State Building is the first building to have more than 100 floors. The building weighs approximately 330,000 metric tons. It has 6,500 windows, 73 elevators, 1,860 steps to the top floor, and a total floor area of 2,200,000 square feet.

Did you know?
The Empire State Building remained the tallest skyscraper in the world for over 40 years

The Empire State Building remained the tallest skyscraper in the world for a record 41 years and stood as the world’s tallest man-made structure for 23 years.

История небоскреба: проектирование и строительство

Заглянув в историю, мы узнаем, что проектом здания занялась архитектурная компания «Шрив, Лэмб и Хармон», главным архитектором которой был Уилльям Ф. Лэмб.

При проектировании использовались ранние разработки для небоскребов Рейнольдс Билдинг в Северной Каролине и Керью Тауэр в штате Огайо.

Строительство башни стартовало в День святого Патрика – 17 марта 1930 года, и завершилось спустя 1 год и 45 дней, всего на сооружение небоскреба потребовалось более 7 миллионов человеко-часов.

Над постройкой здания трудились 3400 рабочих: большая часть – эмигранты из Европы, а также несколько сотен монтажников – выходцев из индейского племени томогавков, отличительной чертой которых было отсутствие боязни высоты.

На момент начала строительства ЭСБ будущие символы Нью-Йорка – Трамп Билдинг и Крайслер Билдинг – претендовали на титул высочайшего небоскреба в кратчайшие сроки и уже находились в процессе стройки.

Между ними разгорелась нешуточная борьба, в результате которой ЭСБ обогнал всех: здание росло на четыре с половиной этажа в неделю, рекорд – четырнадцать этажей за десять дней.

Так, спустя 410 дней, 5662 м3 стройматериалов, 60 тысяч тонн стальных конструкций, 10 млн кирпичей и 700 км кабеля, на горизонте Манхэттена появилось высочайшее на тот момент здание в мире.

Similar skyscrapers

Height comparison with the Burj Khalifa, Willis Tower, Taipei 101, and the Petronas Twin Towers

The Torre Latinoamericana in Mexico City very much resembles the Empire State Building, including setbacks and antenna. The main differences are the size and outer paneling—the Torre Latinoamericana is glass-paneled on the outside. Also of similar design are the Seven Sisters in Moscow (such as the main building of Moscow State University) and the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland. The Williams Tower in Houston is a glass-architecture version of the design, and the entrance on the ground floor is very similar.

The Reynolds Building, headquarters for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina is said to be the prototype for the Empire State Building. The Carew Tower in Cincinnati, is also thought to be the basis of the tower, due to the similar design by the same architectural firm, Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates. Another tower thought to be an inspiration for the Empire State Building is the Penobscot Building in Detroit, Michigan, completed in 1928.

It was constructed during a race to create the world’s tallest building.

Credit: Tetra Images/Getty Images

In the late-1920s, as New York’s economy boomed like never before, builders were in a mad dash to erect the world’s largest skyscraper. The main competition was between 40 Wall Street’s Bank of Manhattan building and the Chrysler Building, an elaborate Art Deco structure conceived by car mogul Walter Chrysler as a “monument to me.” Both towers tried to best each other by adding more floors to their design, and the race really heated up in August 1929, when General Motors executive John J. Raskob and former New York Governor Al Smith announced plans for the Empire State Building.

Upon learning that the Empire State would be 1,000 feet tall, Chrysler changed his plans a final time and fixed a stainless steel spire to the top of his skyscraper. The addition saw the Chrysler Building soar to a record 1,048 feet, but unfortunately for Chrysler, Raskob and Smith simply went back to the drawing board and returned with an even taller design for the Empire State Building. When completed in 1931, the colossus loomed 1,250 feet over the streets of Midtown Manhattan. It would remain the world’s tallest building for nearly 40 years until the completion of the first World Trade Center tower in 1970.

B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945.

Wreckage from B-25 crash.

On the morning of July 28, 1945, while flying an Army B-25 bomber toward New York’s La Guardia Airport, Army Lt. Col. William F. Smith became disoriented in heavy fog and drifted over Midtown Manhattan. The World War II combat veteran managed to dodge several skyscrapers, but he was unable to avoid plowing into the 78th and 79th floors of the Empire State at 200 miles an hour. The crash triggered a massive explosion and sent debris careering through the building’s interior. Smith and two crewmen were killed, as were 11 people inside the building. A four-alarm fire broke out on several floors—it was then the highest building fire in New York’s history—but firefighters managed to extinguish it in just 40 minutes. Amazingly, the undamaged sections of the building were reopened for business just two days later.

Используемое оборудование

Ранний ( около 1905 г.) состоял из:

Автомобили, произведенные компанией Budd, в рекламе Saturday Evening Post 1944 года .

• Буфет
• Тренер (2)
• Sleeper (гостиная вагон)

Примечание: личный вагон вице-президента часто приставляли к концу поезда для экскурсий.

7 декабря 1941 г. Состав:

• 5426 Оптимизированный J3A 4-6-4 Hudson Locomotive & Tender
• Алонзо Б. КОРНЕЛЛ Багаж 60 ?? Железнодорожный почтовый вагон
• GROVER CLEVELAND Багажный буфет, 36 мест Lounge Car
• CHARLES E. HUGHES Салон-салон на 30 мест с гостиной-салоном на 5 мест
• HERBERT H. LEHMAN Салон-салон на 30 мест с гостиной-салоном на 5 мест
• НАТАН Л. МИЛЛЕР 30-местный салон-вагон с 5-местным салоном для гостиной
• GEORGE CLINTON Вагон-ресторан на 44 места
• REUBEN E. FENTON 56 Сиденье для налоговых автобусов Тренер
• 2569 56 Сиденье Revenue Coach
• 2567 56 Сиденье Revenue Coach
• 2566 56 Сиденье Revenue Тренер
• HAMILTON FISH 56 Сиденье Revenue Coach
• DEWITT CLINTON Вагон-ресторан на 44 места
• ДЭВИД Б. ХИЛЛ, 56 мест, тренер по доходам
• MORGAN LEWIS 56 Сиденье Revenue Coach
• УИЛЬЯМ Л. МАРСИ, тренер по доходам, 56 мест
• ТЕОДОР РУЗВЕЛЬТ 56 мест Таверна Бар Лаунж Обзор

Высота и другие технические характеристики здания

На момент официального открытия небоскреба его высота составляла 381 м, а после возведения на крыше небоскреба телевизионной башни в 1952 году, высота достигла 443,2 м. После чего вершина башни стала использоваться для расположения оборудования.

Сколько этажей?

В здании 103 этажа: коммерческие помещения занимают первые 85 этажей здания, их общая площадь составляет более 257 тысяч м².

Остальные 16 этажей – надстройка в стиле ар-деко, представляющем собой сочетание модернизма и неоклассицизма.

На 86 и 102 этажах небоскреба расположены смотровые площадки.

Ширина башни у основания – около 140 м: постройка занимает около одного гектара земли. Всего в здании насчитывается 6500 окон, 1860 ступеней и 73 лифта, которые способны перевозить до 10 тысяч человек в час.

It was initially considered a financial flop.

Former NY gov. Al Smith, who served as the building’s first president.

The Empire State Building was primarily designed to house corporate offices, but it got off to a rocky start thanks to the 1929 stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression. Less than 25 percent of the building’s retail space was occupied upon its opening in 1931, earning it the nickname the “Empty State Building.” The building’s owners were reduced to engineering publicity stunts to draw renters—including hosting a 1932 séance that tried to contact the ghost of Thomas Edison from the 82nd floor—but the skyscraper’s upper half remained almost entirely vacant for most of the 1930s. At times, workers were even told to turn on lights on the higher floors to create the illusion that they were occupied. It wasn’t until World War II that the building finally became profitable.

6. B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945.

Wreckage from B-25 crash.

On the morning of July 28, 1945, while flying an Army B-25 bomber toward New York’s La Guardia Airport, Army Lt. Col. William F. Smith became disoriented in heavy fog and drifted over Midtown Manhattan. The World War II combat veteran managed to dodge several skyscrapers, but he was unable to avoid plowing into the 78th and 79th floors of the Empire State at 200 miles an hour. The crash triggered a massive explosion and sent debris careering through the building’s interior. Smith and two crewmen were killed, as were 11 people inside the building. A four-alarm fire broke out on several floors—it was then the highest building fire in New York’s history—but firefighters managed to extinguish it in just 40 minutes. Amazingly, the undamaged sections of the building were reopened for business just two days later.

7. A woman survived a 75-story plunge in one of the building’s elevators.

During the 1945 bomber crash, several pieces of the B-25’s engine sliced through the Empire State Building and entered an elevator shaft. The cables for two cars were severed, including one containing a 19-year-old elevator operator named Betty Lou Oliver. The elevator plummeted from the 75th floor and soon crashed into the subbasement, but luckily for Oliver, more than a thousand feet of severed elevator cable had gathered at the bottom of the shaft, cushioning the blow. The fall may have also been slowed by a pocket of compressed air generated by the car’s rapid descent. Despite suffering severe injuries including a broken neck and back, Oliver survived.

8. There was a short-lived plan to add 11 floors to the Empire State Building.

Credit: Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images

Shortly after the World Trade Center towers were erected in the early 1970s, an architect at the firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon concocted a scheme that would allow the Empire State Building to keep its crown as the world’s tallest skyscraper. The proposed plan called for the building’s 16-story tower to be demolished and replaced by a new top section that would increase its height to 113 stories and 1,495 feet. If completed, the renovation would have made the Empire Building taller than both the World Trade Center and the Sears Tower—which was then under construction—but the idea was quickly dropped due to cost concerns and complaints that it would destroy the building’s iconic look.

9. A few daredevils have parachuted from the building’s observation deck.

Credit: NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images

In April 1986, British thrill seekers Alastair Boyd and Michael McCarthy concealed parachutes under their coats, bought tickets to the Empire State Building and then hurled themselves off its 86th floor observation deck. The pair landed safely more than 1,000 feet below on 33rd Street, but while McCarthy was quickly arrested, Boyd simply hailed a cab and escaped. He soon turned himself in, however, and both men were charged with “reckless endangerment” and “unlawful parachuting.” Twelve years later, Norwegian parachutist Thor Alex “The Human Fly” Kappfjell repeated the stunt by jumping off the building’s 34th street side. Kappfjell managed to escape and parachute off the Chrysler Building a few days later, but he was eventually arrested after jumping off the World Trade Center.

Broadcast stations

Communications devices of all sorts adorn the very top of the building.

New York City is the largest media market in the United States. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, nearly all of the city’s commercial broadcast stations (both television and radio) have transmitted from the top of the Empire State Building, although a few stations are located at the nearby Condé Nast Building.

Broadcasting began at Empire in the late 1930s, when RCA leased the 85th floor and built a laboratory there for Edwin Howard Armstrong. When Armstrong and RCA terminated their relationship, the 85th floor became the home of RCA’s New York television operations, first as an experimental station and eventually as a commercial station WNBT, channel 4 (now WNBC-TV). Other television broadcasters would join RCA at Empire, on the 83rd, 82nd, and 81st floors, frequently bringing sister FM stations with them.

When the World Trade Center was being constructed, it interfered with broadcast signals and caused serious problems for the television stations, most of which moved to the WTC as soon as it was completed. This made it possible to renovate the antenna structure and the transmitter facilities for the benefit of the FM stations remaining there, which were soon joined by other FMs and UHF TVs moving in from elsewhere in the metropolitan area. The destruction of the World Trade Center necessitated a great deal of shuffling of antennas and transmitter rooms in order to accommodate the stations moving back into the ESB.

An inflatable King Kong was attached to the Empire State Building for the film’s 50th anniversary—with mixed results.

Inflatable King Kong on the Empire State Building. (Credit: Harry Hamburg/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

Of the more than 90 movies featuring the Empire State Building, none is more famous than 1933’s “King Kong,” which ends with the titular giant ape scaling the skyscraper and being attacked by swarming biplanes. The original scene was shot in a studio, but for the film’s 50th anniversary in April 1983, a balloon company president tried to recreate it by attaching a inflatable King Kong to the Empire State’s mooring mast. Unfortunately, the $150,000 stunt didn’t go as planned. The 84-foot Kong balloon suffered a tear while being inflated, ruining a plan to have it buzzed by vintage aircraft. It was finally inflated a few days later, but it only stayed on the building for a short time before another rip forced the project to be scrapped altogether.

History

The building’s opening coincided with the Great Depression in the United States, and as a result much of its office space went unrented in the beginning. In its first year of operation, the observation deck took in over a million dollars, as much as its owners earned in rent that year. The lack of renters led New Yorkers to deride the building as the «Empty State Building.»

Empire State Building with downtown New York City in the background.

The building’s distinctive art deco spire was originally designed to be a mooring mast and depot for dirigibles. The 102nd floor was originally the landing platform for the Dirigible Gang Plank. One elevator, which travels between the 86th and 102nd floors was supposed to transport passengers after they checked in at the observation deck on the 86th floor. However, the idea proved to be impractical and dangerous after a few attempts with airships, due to the powerful updrafts caused by the size of the building itself. The T-shaped mooring devices remain in place, and a large broadcasting antenna was added to the top of the spire in 1952.

At 9:49 a.m. on Saturday July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber flying in a thick fog accidentally crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building between the 79th and 80th floors, where the offices of the National Catholic Welfare Council were located. One engine shot through the side opposite the impact and another plummeted down an elevator shaft. The fire was extinguished in 40 minutes. Fourteen people were killed in the incident. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a plunge of 75 stories inside an elevator, which still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest, survived, elevator fall recorded. Despite the damage and loss of life, the building was open for business on many floors on the following Monday.

Over the years, more than 30 people have committed suicide from atop the building. The fence around the observatory terrace was put up in 1947 after five people tried to jump over a three-week span. In 1979, Elvita Adams jumped from the 86th floor, only to be blown back onto the 85th floor and left with only a broken hip. Despite security measures, the building was also the site of suicides as recently as 2004 and 2006.

It was modeled after two earlier buildings.

North Carolina’s Reynolds Building. (Credit: Gabriel Benzur/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

When he drew up its plans in 1929, architect William Lamb of the firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon is said to have modeled the Empire State Building after Winston-Salem, North Carolina’s Reynolds Building—which he had previously designed—and Carew Tower in Cincinnati. The two earlier Art Deco buildings are now often cited as the Empire State’s architectural ancestors. On the Reynolds Building’s 50th anniversary in 1979, the Empire State Building’s general manager even sent a card that read, “Happy Anniversary, Dad.”

Смотровые площадки

Основная смотровая площадка

На 86 этаже небоскреба действует высочайшая смотровая площадка под открытым небом в Нью-Йорке. Здесь были сняты десятки киносцен, пережиты миллионы незабываемых моментов.

Для справки! Площадка располагается вокруг шпиля здания, представляя взору посетителей панораму Нью-Йорка и его окрестностей. Отсюда открываются захватывающие виды на Центральный парк, реку Гудзон, пролив Ист-Ривер, Бруклинский мост, Таймс-сквер, статую Свободы и многое другое.

Можно также воспользоваться обзорным биноклем с многократным увеличением и рассмотреть объекты в мельчайших подробностях.

Верхняя смотровая площадка

Шестнадцатью этажами выше – на 102 этаже здания – действует ещё одна смотровая площадка, по площади значительно уступающая основной, к тому же полностью закрытая.