New York state of mind
A visit to the Empire State Building fascinates.
Jeff had rented two of the tiniest hotel rooms ever built for the most money we had ever paid for lodging. But that’s Manhattan. We also had purchased bundled attraction passes for more attractions than we could possible use.
The thing I was most excited about was the Empire State Building. When I was a little girl, it was still the tallest building in the world. Even to a child, it inspired awe and almost magical wonder by its mighty heights.
We raced on foot through early traffic to be there when it opened. The lines were just forming with only 60-70 people ahead of us. I was almost giddy with excitement. We passed through an airport-like security gate, and we were in!
The first and second floors are mainly upscale retail. The art deco decor reminded us that it was built in the early 1930s. Acres of natural marble and granite inside and out harmonize with polished brass fixtures, elegant chandeliers and velvet upholstered furnishings.
Though the building was almost 80 years old in 2011, it recently had been refurbished. Everything murmured power and old money.
I had never realized that it took its name from New York’s nickname, The Empire State. Well, duh!
Neither of the original owners were invested in the stock market during the 1929 crash. The construction employed almost 4,000 people. Supremely organized, materials were delivered by up to 200 trucks per day but timed so as not to congest traffic.
The building tapers like a pencil as it rises because of setback rules in Manhattan. City planners wanted sunlight to reach street level each day and required that upper floors be narrower.
It stands on the site of the original Waldorf Astoria hotels. But the fanciest part of town had moved away from the area by then, and the hotels had become outdated. The footings already were being dug before the demolition on the hotels was complete. It opened May 1, 1931, just 54 weeks after construction began. 102 stories tall, it now receives about 4 million visitors to the 86th and 102nd floor observatories each year.
It originally was planned as a 50-story skyscraper, but two other buildings, which aspired to be the tallest in the world, were already under construction as the Empire State Building was being designed. Designers Shreve, Lamb and Harmon began adding stories and top dressings to plans in what local papers called the “Race to the Sky.”
The spire on the top of the building originally was built not for King Kong, but to be a mooring for dirigibles. The idea was that blimps would tie up to the spire and passengers would climb onboard via a very steep ladder.
But it was not to be. The gigantic structure itself creates such a powerful updraft that winds at the observation deck on the 86th floor are hold-onto your-hat-strong every single day. The only blimp to attempt the mooring was so battered and blown that it retreated rather than being dashed to bits. Incidentally, the movie “King Kong” came out just two years after the building opened, and it was instrumental in establishing the building as New York’s icon.
In its first years during the Great Depression, with a glut of office space in New York, over 60 percent of the building stood vacant. It earned more from charging visitors a dollar apiece to travel up to the observation decks than it did from leases.
It’s been sold and resold with the land and the structure transferred in different transactions. Donald Trump once owned the land but failed in an attempt to buy the structure.
Skyscrapers bristle up into the distance like the hackles on a dog’s neck. Wisps of clouds and soaring birds glide by. The atmosphere evokes thoughts of the biblical Tower of Babel. Not only has mankind built a tower almost into heaven, tourists speak a babble of different tongues.
The current spire is a giant broadcasting antenna. Though the north tower of the World Trade Center claimed both tallest building status and best broadcasting location, many broadcasting companies returned to the Empire State Building after 9/11.
Now again, One World Trade Center overshadows The Empire State Building in height and as the least obstructed broadcasting site in the state.
The Empire State Building is an awe-inspiring achievement and a gem of our heritage.
Only in America. God bless it.