Empire State Building

Empire State Building, situated in New York City in the United States, was the world’s tallest building until 1972 when the World Trade Center succeeded it and took over the title. The Empire State Building was built in 1931, and thus the history began. This great structure is 1250 ft tall. After the attacks on World Trade Center in 2001, Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York. It has 102 floors and 2,768,591 square feet of floor area. It was built by the Shreve, Lamb and Harmon firm.

It is popularly known as art deco skyscraper. The drawing of the structure was produced within two weeks of having it commissioned. One strange fact was that it was designed from the top down. However, 3400 workers were included in the construction of the building. Five workers died in the construction of the building. The inauguration of the building was done in a highly dramatic manner by having the then President turn on the lights of the building by pushing a button from the Capitol.

When the building was inaugurated, the Great Depression was on in the USA. Hence a lot of space was left unrented and the building didn’t become profitable until 1950. The Building was then sold to Roger L. Stevens for a record of $51 million. The building was unfortunately very famous for the Empire State Building Suicides. Many people used to commit suicide from the observation deck, which is on the 86th floor. Many attempts have been made to stop this yet people still plunge down from this building, which is of course one of the tallest buildings in the united States

The observation deck is on 86th floor and the rest of the 16 floors represent the spire. This great stucture was the first building to have more then 100 floors during its time. There are 6500 windows and 73 elevators. It has total 1860 steps which takes a visitor to the 102nd floor observatory from where a rod starts. This building has total 1000 odd businesses running in it and has about 20,000 employees walking there everyday. This makes it the second largest office building in the world after the Pentagon. There are about 70 miles of pipe and 2,5000,000 feet of electrical wire inside it. It weighs about 370,000 tons and cost $40,948,900 to build.

Being one of the oldest skyscrapers, it has an aura of classic in it. It has been built in a classical fashion. In 1964, the floodlights were added to the building. The floodlights would be illuminated in the colors according to the season. For example, they are bathed in green and red lights during the Christmas season. They change according to the season or the event. The observation deck has seen a record of 110 million visitors.

Due to the attack on the World Trade Center Towers, a lot of broadcasting of the radio stations is now done from the top of the Empire State Building. This building has been featured in a number of Hollywood movies like King Kong, Independence Day, An Affair to Remember, Sleepless in Seattle, Futurama, and Live and Let Die (a James Bond film). It has also been featured in Oasis’ song "Standing on the Shoulder of the Giants."