The building was designed by the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. The creators of the skyscraper designed it in the Art Deco style. Unlike most modern skyscrapers, the facade of the tower is made in a classical style. The only decorative element of the gray stone facade is vertical strips of stainless steel. The hall inside is 30 meters long and three floors high. It is decorated with panels depicting the seven wonders of the world, and an eighth is added to them - the Empire State Building itself.
The skyscraper was built in a record 410 days, on average 4.5 floors were built per week, and sometimes in 10 days the new building grew by 14 floors. 5,662 cubic meters of limestone and granite were used for the construction of the external walls. In total, the builders used 60 thousand tons of steel structures, 10 million bricks and 700 km of cable. The building has 6,500 windows. Its design is such that the main load is borne by the steel frame, not the walls. It transfers this load directly to the powerful “two-story” foundation. Thanks to the innovation, the weight of the building was significantly reduced and amounted to 365 thousand tons.
By the time construction was completed, the height of the building was 381 m (after the television tower was erected on the roof of the Empire State Building in 1952, its height reached 443 m).
On May 1, 1931, the official opening of the skyscraper took place. The Empire State Building was opened by the then president of the country, Herbert Hoover: with the flick of a switch from Washington, he lit the lights of the tallest man-made structure in the world at that time.
The Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world for more than 40 years. The skyscraper lost this title only after the construction of the “twin” towers of the World Trade Center in 1972. The tragic death of the “twin” towers during the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, returned the Empire State Building to the status of the tallest building in New York, although the skyscraper could no longer lay claim to world leadership.
The Empire State Building occupies about one hectare of land on the island of Manhattan, at the intersection of 5th Avenue and 34th Street. The building houses the offices of 640 companies employing about 50 thousand people.
The skyscraper is a landmark of Manhattan and New York. Thousands of tourists visit the famous skyscraper every day. In one minute, using a high-speed elevator, they can go up to the observation deck located on the 86th floor and see the panorama of New York: its streets, squares, parks, bridges and even ships at sea. On the 102nd floor there is a glass-enclosed circular observatory. From a height of 381 m, a panorama of five states opens up.
A landmark of New York is considered not only the skyscraper itself, but also its unique lighting system. The tradition of lighting up the Empire State Building in different colors on various holidays has existed for a long time. So, on US Independence Day, the skyscraper turns blue-red-white, and on St. Patrick's Day - green, on Columbus Day - green-white-red. To do this, plastic disks are changed on 200 floodlights illuminating the 30 upper floors.
Even before a television and radio tower was placed on the roof of the skyscraper, it was planned that the upper part of the Empire State Building would serve not only for the festive lighting of the city. The architects designed the roof structure in such a way that it would serve as a pier for passenger airships, which in the 30s. of the last century were a fashionable vehicle and successfully competed with passenger aircraft that were not yet very reliable. The 102nd floor was a berthing platform with a gangway for boarding the airship. A special elevator running between the 86th and 102nd floors could be used to transport passengers whose check-in had to be done on the 86th floor. In reality, not a single airship has ever docked on top of the Empire State Building. The idea of an air terminal turned out to be unsafe - strong and unstable air currents at the top of the 381-meter building made docking very difficult. And soon airships basically ceased to be used as a means of transport.
On the second floor of the building there is an attraction, opened in 1994 for tourists. The attraction is called New York Skyride and is a simulator of air travel over the city. The duration of the attraction is 25 minutes. From 1994 to 2001, an older version of the attraction operated, featuring actor James Doohan, Scotty from Star Trek, as an airplane pilot, humorously trying to maintain control of the plane during a storm. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, this attraction was closed. In the new version, the plot remained the same, but the World Trade Center towers were removed from the scenery, and actor Kevin Bacon became the pilot instead of Doohan. The new version pursued, first of all, educational and informational purposes rather than entertainment. It also included patriotic elements.
In terms of the number of films the Empire State Building has been featured in, the building rivals top movie stars. It all started with King Kong, filmed in 1933, where the final battle of a huge gorilla with American Air Force fighters took place on the roof of this skyscraper. Now the list of films in which the Empire State Building appears, given on the official website of the skyscraper, includes 91 films.
Among other things, the Empire State Building is also the site of some of the most unusual competitions. Every year in early February, skyscraper staircase running competitions are held here. Athletes climb 1,576 steps of the building - from the 1st to the 86th floor - in a few minutes. In 2003, Paul Craik set a record that has not yet been broken - 9 minutes 33 seconds.
Over its almost 80-year history, the Empire State Building has experienced a significant number of different incidents. On July 28, 1945, a USAF B-25 Mitchell bomber, lost in dense fog, crashed into the building between the 79th and 80th floors. One of the engines pierced the skyscraper and fell onto the roof of a neighboring building, the other fell into the elevator shaft. The fire that resulted from the collision was extinguished within 40 minutes. 14 people died in the incident. Elevator Betty Lou Oliver survived a fall from 75 floors in an elevator, an achievement included in the Guinness Book of World Records.
There were fires after that too. So, in August 1988, a fire started on the 86th floor, and the fire reached the very top of the skyscraper. Fortunately, there were no casualties then. In 1990, there was another fire that claimed the lives of 38 people.
There were also incidents of a different kind. In February 1997, 69-year-old Palestinian Ali Hassan Abu Kamal climbed to the observation deck, pulled out a pistol and opened fire on tourists. He killed one person, wounded six, and then shot himself. When the site reopened two days later, visitors were already being probed with magnetometers.
Since its construction, the Empire State Building has attracted people who want to commit suicide. Over the entire period of operation of the building, more than 30 suicides were committed here. The first suicide occurred immediately after construction was completed by a recently laid off worker. As a result, in 1947, a fence had to be erected around the observation site, since in just three weeks there were five suicide attempts there. At the same time, funny things happened: in 1979, Miss Elvita Adams decided to take her own life and jumped from the 86th floor. But a strong wind threw her to the 85th floor, and she escaped with only a broken hip.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
Empire State Building. The story of a skyscraper. July 1st, 2013
The Empire State Building is a 102-story skyscraper located in New York on the island of Manhattan. From 1931 to 1972, before the opening of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, it was the tallest building in the world. In 2001, when the World Trade Center towers collapsed, the skyscraper again became the tallest building in New York. The architecture of the building belongs to the Art Deco style.
In 1986, the Empire State Building was included in the list of US National Historic Landmarks. In 2007, the building was number one on the list of the best American architectural designs according to the American Institute of Architects. The owner and manager of the building is W&H Properties. The tower is located on Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets.
At the end of the 18th century, on the site where the ESB is now located, there was a farm of John Thompson. At that time there was a stream that flowed into Sunfish Pond, which is now located a block from the skyscraper. At the end of the 19th century, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was located here, where New York's social elite lived.
The ESB was designed by Gregory Johnson and his architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which completed the skyscraper's plans in just two weeks, using its previous work, the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, as a basis. Ohio. The building was designed from top to bottom. The main contractors were the Starrett Brothers and Eken, and the project was financed by John J. Raskob.
Construction was supervised by Alfred E. Smith, a former New York City superintendent.
Preparations for construction began on January 22, 1930, and construction of the skyscraper itself, thanks to the influence of Alfred Smith as president of Empire State, Inc., began on March 17, St. Patrick's Day. The project employed 3,400 workers, mostly European immigrants, as well as hundreds of Mohawk Indian foundry workers, primarily from the Kahnawake Reservation, near Montreal.
However, initially no one could have imagined that the Empire State Building would become such a famous skyscraper. Thus, architectural historian Carol Willis notes in one of her books that the main task during the construction of a skyscraper was to meet the specified amount, so the least attention was paid to the appearance of the building.
This construction was part of an intense competition for the title of tallest building in the world. The other two buildings vying for the title, 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building, were still under construction when work began on the ESB. Each of them held the title for less than a year; the Empire State Building beat them in this competition just 410 days after construction began. The official opening of the ESB, held on May 1, 1931, was very pompous: President Herbert Hoover turned on the lights in the building by pressing a button in Washington. Ironically, the lamps on top of the skyscraper were first used to commemorate Franklin Roosevelt's victory over Hoover in the November 1932 presidential election.
Let's, with the help of bloggers, take a closer look at how such skyscrapers were built at that time.
The main part of the material belongs rudzin
, owner of a most interesting diary
"Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper" - photograph from the series "Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam - 1932" by photographer Charles C. Ebbets
Such a miracle as a skyscraper would not have become possible without the invention of the steel frame. Assembling the steel frame of a building is the most dangerous and difficult part of construction. It is the quality and speed of frame assembly that determines whether the project will be implemented on time and within budget.
That is why riveters are the most important profession in the construction of a skyscraper.
Riveters are a caste with their own laws: a riveter’s salary per working day is $15, more than any skilled worker on a construction site; they do not go to work in rain, wind or fog, they are not on the contractor’s staff. They are not alone, they work in teams of four people, and if one of the team does not go to work, no one does. Why, in the midst of the Great Depression, does everyone turn a blind eye to this, from the investor to the foreman?
On a platform made of planks, or simply on steel beams, there is a coal stove. The rivets in the furnace are 10cm long and 3cm in diameter steel cylinders. The “cook” “cooks” the rivets - using small bellows he blows air into the oven to heat them to the required temperature. The rivet has warmed up (not too much - it will turn in the hole and you will have to drill it out; and not too weakly - it will not rivet), now you need to transfer the rivet to where it will fasten the beams. Which beam will be attached when is only known in advance, and it is impossible to move a hot stove during the working day. Therefore, the attachment point is often located 30 (thirty) meters from the “cook”, sometimes higher, sometimes 2-3 floors lower.
The only way to transfer a rivet is to throw it.
The “cook” turns to the “goalkeeper” and silently, making sure that the goalkeeper is ready to receive, throws a red-hot 600-gram blank in his direction with tongs. Sometimes there are already welded beams on the trajectory; you need to throw them once, accurately and strongly.
The “goalkeeper” stands on a narrow platform or simply on a bare beam next to the riveting area. His goal is to catch a flying piece of iron with an ordinary tin can. He cannot move without falling. But he must catch the rivet, otherwise it will fall on the city like a small bomb.
“Shooter” and “pointer” are waiting. The “goalkeeper”, having caught the rivet, drives it into the hole. A “stop” on the outside of the building, hanging over the abyss, holds the rivet head with a steel rod and its own weight. The “shooter” uses a 15-kilogram pneumatic hammer to rivet it from the other side within a minute.
The best team performs this trick over 500 times a day, the average - about 250.
The photographs show the best brigade in 1930, from left to right: “cook”, “goalkeeper”, “stopper”, and shooter.”
The danger of this work can be illustrated by the following fact: masons at a construction site are insured at a rate of 6% of their salary, carpenters - 4%. The riveter's rate is 25-30%.
One person died on the Chrysler building.
Four people died on Wall Street 40.
There are five in the Empire State.
The frame of the skyscraper consists of hundreds of steel profiles several meters long and weighing several tons, the so-called beams. There is nowhere to store them during the construction of a skyscraper - no one will allow organizing a warehouse in the city center, in a densely built environment, on municipal land. Moreover, all structural elements are different, each can be used in one single place, so an attempt to organize even a temporary warehouse, for example, on one of the last completed floors can lead to great confusion and delays in construction.
That is why, when I wrote that the work of riveters is the most important and most difficult, I did not mention that it is also the most dangerous and difficult. The work is harder and more dangerous than theirs - the work of the crane crew.
The order for beams was agreed upon with the metallurgists several weeks ago; trucks deliver them to the construction site minute by minute; regardless of the weather, they must be unloaded immediately.
The derrick crane is a hinged boom, located on the last built floor, the installers are on the floor above. The winch operator can be located on any floor of an already constructed building, because no one is going to stop the lift and distract other cranes to lift the heavy mechanism several floors higher for the convenience of the installers. Therefore, when lifting a multi-ton channel, the operator does not see either the beam itself, or the machine that brought it, or his comrades.
The only reference point for control is the strike of the bell, given by the apprentice at the signal of the foreman, who is located, along with the entire brigade, dozens of floors above. A blow turns on the winch motor, a blow turns it off. Several teams of riveters are working nearby with their hammers (have you ever heard the noise of a jackhammer?), other crane operators are lifting other channels at the commands of their bells. You can’t make a mistake and not hear the impact - the channel will either ram the crane boom, or throw the installers who are preparing to secure it off the installed vertical beam.
The foreman, controlling the derrick through two operators, one of whom he does not see, ensures that the holes for riveting on the installed vertical beams coincide with the holes on the raised channel with an accuracy of 2-3 millimeters. Only then can a pair of installers secure the swaying, often wet channel with huge bolts and nuts.
In New York on 6th Avenue there are monuments to these guys, erected in 2001. The model was the most famous photo, she is the first in the preview here. So, at first they made the monument exactly like in the photo, i.e. 11 dudes are sitting on a beam. And then the one on the far right was removed to the root. And only because he has a bottle of whiskey in his hands!!! I understand if they did this here during Gorbachev’s time, but they did it in 2001!! Apparently they didn’t want to destroy the legend about the brave guys. Now these are 10 quite decent guys sitting on a steel beam. Fine. But it's kind of a shame.
Photography by Samuel H. Gottscho, 1932
In New York on 6th Avenue there are monuments to these guys, erected in 2001. The model was the most famous photo, she is the first in the preview here. So, at first they made the monument exactly like in the photo, i.e. 11 dudes are sitting on a beam. And then the one on the far right was removed to the root. And only because he has a bottle of whiskey in his hands!!! I understand if they had done this here during Gorbachev’s time, but they did it in 2001!! Apparently they didn’t want to destroy the legend about the brave guys. Now these are 10 quite decent guys sitting on a steel beam. Fine. But it's kind of a shame.
The opening of the ESB coincided with the Great Depression in the United States, so at first most of the office space was empty. In the first year of operation, the construction of the observation deck cost the owners of the building approximately $2 million, and they received the same amount for renting out the premises. Due to the lack of tenants, New Yorkers began to call the skyscraper the “Empty State Building.” The building did not become profitable until 1950. In 1951, ESB was sold to Roger L. Stevens and his partners for a record $51 million, brokered by the well-known upper Manhattan real estate firm Charles F. Noyes & Company. At the time, it was the highest price for a single building in real estate history.
The skyscraper's Art Deco spire was originally designed as a mooring mast and anchorage for airships. The one hundred and second floor was first a landing platform, with a special ladder located on it. A separate elevator between the 86th and 102nd floors would take passengers upstairs after they checked in at the observation deck on the 86th floor. However, after several attempts to bring the airship to the skyscraper, it turned out that this was difficult and dangerous due to the strong upward air currents arising from the enormous height of the building. In 1952, a large television tower was attached to the skyscraper's spire.
Over the years of its existence, the Empire State Building has proven itself to be an extremely durable structure. So on July 28, 1945, a B-25 bomber literally crashed into a skyscraper. Several people died, and dozens were injured of varying degrees of severity. The bomber's engine flew through the entire building, but the damage to the skyscraper was limited to the destruction of the outer walls and fire in some rooms.
On July 28, 1945, a USAF B-25 Mitchell bomber, piloted in thick fog by Lt. Col. William Smith, crashed into the north façade of the building between the 79th and 80th floors. One of the engines pierced the tower and fell onto a neighboring building, the other fell into the elevator shaft. The fire that arose as a result of the collision was extinguished within 40 minutes. 14 people died in the incident, and elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived after falling in an elevator from a height of 75 floors - this achievement was included in the Guinness Book of Records. Despite the incident, the building was not closed, and work in most offices did not stop the next working day.
damage to the Empire State Building after a collision with an airplane
During the entire operation of the building, more than 30 suicides were committed here. The first suicide occurred immediately after construction was completed by a recently laid off worker. In 1947, a fence was erected around the observation deck, as there were 5 suicide attempts there in just three weeks. In 1979, Miss Elvita Adams decided to take her own life and jumped from the 86th floor. But strong winds threw Miss Adams to the 85th floor, and she escaped with only a broken hip. One of the last suicides occurred on April 13, 2007, when a lawyer jumped from the 69th floor.
Clickable, panorama
ESB rises 1,250 feet (381m) above the street at the 102nd floor, and if you count the 203-foot (62m) spire, the skyscraper's total height is 1,453 feet, eight inches (443m). The building has 85 floors of retail and office space (2,158,000 square feet/200,000 m2) and an indoor/outdoor observation deck on the 86th floor. the remaining 16 floors are an Art Deco tower, ending in an observatory on the 102nd floor. At the top of the tower is a 203-foot-tall spire, much of which is covered in television antennas, with a light rod at the very top.
The Empire State Building was the first building to have more than one hundred floors. It has 6,500 windows and 73 elevators, and 1,860 steps lead from the street to the 102nd floor. The total area of all floors is approximately 2,768,591 square feet (257,000 m2); The ESB base is approximately 2 acres (0.8 ha). The building houses more than a thousand organizations, and it also has its own zip code - 10118. As of 2007, approximately 21,000 employees work in the building every day, making the ESB the second largest office complex in the United States, after the Pentagon. Construction of the skyscraper lasted one year and 45 days. It originally had 64 elevators located centrally; At the moment, the ESB has 73 elevators, including service ones. The elevator rises to the 86th floor, where the observation deck is located, in less than a minute. The total length of the skyscraper's pipes is 70 miles (113 km), the length of electrical wires is 2,500,000 feet (760,000 m). The skyscraper is heated with low pressure steam; Despite its enormous height, the building only requires steam pressure of two or three pounds per square inch (0.14 to 0.21 kg per cm2) to heat the building. The skyscraper weighs approximately 336,000 tons.
In 1964, a floodlighting system was installed on the tower in order to illuminate the top in colors corresponding to any events, memorable dates or holidays (St. Patrick's Day, Christmas, etc.). For example, after the eightieth anniversary and subsequent death of Frank Sinatra, the building was illuminated in blue tones, due to the singer’s nickname “Mr. Blue Eyes.” Following the death of actress Fay Wray in late 2004, the tower's lights were turned off completely for 15 minutes.
The cost of constructing the ESB was $40,948,900. Unlike most modern tall buildings, the Empire State Building has a classic facade. Entrances from 33rd and 34th Streets, covered by modernist steel canopies, lead into two-story high corridors crossed by steel or glass walkways at the second floor level, surrounding the elevators. There are 67 elevators in the central part of the building.
The lobby is three stories high and uses the building's aluminum components in place of the antenna, which was not present on the spire until 1952. In the northern corridor are eight illuminated panels created by Roy Sparkia and Renee Nemorov in 1963, making the building an eighth wonder of the world, joining the traditional seven.
During the finishing of the building, long-term projections were made about its functioning to ensure that the use of the building now would not prevent it from serving future generations. This explains the redesign of the power supply system.
Traditionally, in addition to regular lighting, the building is illuminated in the colors of New York sports teams on days when those teams are playing in the city (orange, blue and white for the New York Knicks, red, white and blue for the New York Rangers and etc.). During the US Open tennis tournament, yellow (the color of the tennis ball) dominates the lighting. In June 2002, during the celebration of the jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the illumination was purple and gold (the colors of the House of Windsor).
Very often this building is the hero of feature films. Take King Kong for example.
In 1964, floodlights were installed on top to illuminate the building at night, with colors chosen to match the seasons and other events such as St. Patrick's Day and Christmas. Following the skyscraper's eighteenth birthday and the subsequent death of Frank Sinatra, for example, the building was illuminated in blue, hinting at the singer's nickname, "Ol' Blue Eyes." After the death of actress Fay Wray (King Kong) at the end of 2004, the skyscraper stood in complete darkness for 15 minutes.
Floodlights illuminated the ESB in red, white, and blue for several months after the destruction of the World Trade Center, after which it returned to its normal routine. Traditionally, in addition to the regular schedule, the skyscraper is illuminated with the colors of New York sports teams on home game days (orange, blue and white for the New York Knicks; red, white and blue for the New York Rangers Rangers), etc.). The building is illuminated with the yellow color of a tennis ball during the US Open in late August or early September. The skyscraper was even lit up bright scarlet twice for Rutgers University, the first time during the November 9, 2006 football game against the University of Louisville, which produced the brightest whitewash in university history, and the second time 3 April 2007, when the women's basketball team played against Tennessee during the national championship.
In June 2002, during the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, New York lit up the ESB in red and gold (the colors of the monarchs of the Royal House of Windsor). New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it was a sign of gratitude to Her Majesty for playing the United States national anthem at Buckingham Palace after September 11, 2001.
In 1995, the skyscraper was illuminated in blue, red, green and yellow to celebrate the launch of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. It was a breakthrough for home computing, and the launch was met with fanfare.
The building was also painted purple and white to celebrate the graduation of New York University students.
When the New York Mets beat the New York Yankees in the Subway Series in May 2007, the following night the building was lit up in the winning colors, orange and blue.
In October 2007, the skyscraper was painted green for three days in honor of the Islamic holiday of Eid ul-Fitr. Such lighting, first used in honor of a Muslim holiday, is planned to be used every year.
On April 25-27, 2008, the skyscraper was painted “lavender” in honor of the release of Mariah Carey’s new album “E=MC2.
The Empire State Building is home to one of the most popular outdoor observatories in the world, visited by more than 110 million people. The observation deck on the 86th floor provides an impressive 360-degree view of the city. There is another observation deck open to the public on the 102nd floor. It closed in 1999 but reopened in November 2005. It is completely glazed and much smaller than the first; on days when there is an influx of visitors, it is sometimes closed.
New York is the main media center of the United States. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, nearly all of the city's commercial broadcast stations (both radio and television) have been broadcast from the top of the ESB, although some FM radio stations are located in the nearby Conde Nast Building. Most New York AM stations are broadcast from New Jersey.
Communication facilities for broadcast stations are at the top of the ESB. Broadcasting from the building began on December 22, 1931, when Broadcasting began at Empire on December 22, 1931, when the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) began broadcasting experimental television broadcasts through a small antenna mounted on a spire. They rented the 85th floor and built a laboratory there, and in 1934 RCA was merged into a shady venture by Edwin Howard Armstrong to test his FM system using a skyscraper antenna. When Armstrong and RCA left the building in 1935 and its FM equipment was removed, the 85th floor became the site of RCA's television studios, first as the experimental W2XBS channel 1, which became the commercial station WNBT, channel 1 (now WNBC-TV) on July 1, 1941 channel 4). The National Broadcasting Company station (WEAF-FM, now WQHT) began broadcasting via antenna in 1940.
NBC continued to have sole use of the top of the Empire State Building until 1950, when the FCC changed the arrangement based on viewer requests to move the seven main channels to the NBC so that they would not have to constantly adjust the antennas. Construction has begun on a huge television tower. Other television companies then joined RCA on the 83rd, 82nd and 81st floors, some bringing their sister radio stations with them. Massive TV and FM broadcasts began in 1951. In 1965, separate FM antennas were installed around the viewing area on the 102nd floor.
When the World Trade Center was built, it caused major problems for television stations, most of which moved into the World Trade Center immediately after its completion. This allowed the antenna to be upgraded and the broadcast quality of the FM radio stations remaining in the ESB to be improved, which were soon joined by other FM radio stations and television stations that had moved from all other locations in the city center. The destruction of the World Trade Center necessitated changes to broadcast frequencies and redevelopment of studios to accommodate stations that were forced to return.
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For more than forty years, this American skyscraper was considered the tallest building in the world. Bigpiccha will tell you about the history of the Empire State Building, which was erected during the Great Depression.
1. Excavation work on the site began on January 22, 1930, and construction of the skyscraper began on March 17, St. Patrick's Day. The construction site employed 3,400 workers (mostly emigrants from Europe) and several hundred steel construction workers from the Mohawk tribe, who came from the Kahnawake reservation near Montreal.
2. The tower was built in just 410 days - a record time for that time, because its height was 381 meters to the roof and 443.2 meters to the top of the spire.
3. About four and a half floors were built in a week. Ten days became a record when 14 floors were erected. The rush was understandable: two other skyscrapers vying for the title of tallest buildings in the world—40 Wall Street Tower and the Chrysler Building—were already built. The organizers of the construction of the Empire State Building really wanted, as they say, to catch up and overtake their rivals.
4. The project was funded by John Raskob and Pierre DuPont, President of the DuPont Company.
5. The workers worked without any insurance.
6. Six fatal accidents among workers occurred during construction.
7. The official opening of the tower took place on May 1, 1931. The ribbon was cut by Governor Smith's children. US President Herbert Hoover turned on the lights in the building by pressing a button in Washington.
8. Ten million bricks and 700 kilometers of cable were used during construction. The tower has 6,500 windows and 73 elevators. The building weighs 331,000 tons, is built on a two-story foundation and supported by a steel structure weighing 54,400 tons.
9. It was not possible to rent out all the premises in the building at once for ten years. The building was nicknamed the Empty State Building. The Empire State Building did not generate income for its owners until 1950. It was only in 1951, after the building was sold to Roger Stevens and his partners for $51 million, that it ceased to be unprofitable.
10. For 41 years, the Empire State Building was the tallest building in New York and for 23 years, the tallest structure in the world. In 1972, the north tower of the World Trade Center surpassed the Empire State Building in height to become the tallest building in the world. After the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the skyscraper again became the tallest building in New York and until 2009 remained the second tallest in the United States after the Willis Tower in Chicago.
11. Over the entire history of the skyscraper, more than 30 suicides have been committed here. The first tragedy occurred immediately after construction was completed: a recently fired worker died. One of the most recent suicides occurred on April 13, 2007, when a lawyer who had failed at work jumped from the 69th floor.
12. All black and white illustrations in this post are photographs by Lewis Wickes Hine. He managed to capture not only all stages of construction, but also the conditions under which the skyscraper was built.
You will probably become one of the millions of tourists crowding into huge queues in order to get into Empire State Building. This is not surprising, because King Kong himself tried to get to the top of the building. In every corner of New York you will find souvenirs, postcards, brochures and T-shirts with the image of the Empire State Building.
Empire State Building officially opened on May 1, 1931, and became the tallest building of that time. Its height is 1,250 feet (381 m). This skyscraper has become not only an icon of New York, it has become a symbol of human desire to achieve the impossible.
Built in 1889, the 984-foot (300 m) Eiffel Tower spurred American architects to build something taller. This may have been the reason for the start of the skyscraper race in the twentieth century. So, in 1909, the fifty-story MetLife Tower (Metropolitan Life Tower), whose height is 700 feet (214 m), was built. 4 years later, in 1913. The 57-story Woolworth Building, 792 feet (241 m) high, was built. And in 1929, the tallest building in New York was the 71-story Bank of Manhattan Building - 927 feet (283 m).
When former General Motors vice president John Jakob Raskob decided to join the skyscraper race, Walter Chrysler (founder of Chrysler Corporation) was already building the Chrysler Building. Chrysler kept the height of its building a strict secret, so when construction began, Raskob did not know whose building would be taller, his or Chrysler's.
In 1929, Raskob bought the site for his skyscraper at the intersection of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. The glamorous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was located on this site. The land on which the hotel was located greatly increased in value, so the hotel owners decided to sell it and build a new hotel in another location. Raskob cost this plot of land (including the hotel) approximately $16 million.
To develop the skyscraper project, Raskob hired the company Shreve, Lamb & Harmon.
While discussing a building project with architect William Lamb, Raskob took a long pencil, put it on the table and asked: “Bill, how tall can you build a building without it falling?” Thus began the saga of the construction of one of the most famous buildings in the world.
To complete the project, Raskob needed the best builders. Having invited contractors from Starrett Bros. to an interview. & Eken,” Raskob asked – do they have the necessary construction equipment? To which Poll Starrett, the company foreman, replied that they didn’t even have a pick and shovel. Raskob, of course, was surprised by this answer, since other construction companies with whose representatives he communicated had all the necessary equipment, and rented what was missing. However, Starrett convinced him that a building of this scale required a special approach and conventional construction equipment would not help. For the construction of the skyscraper, Starrett offered to buy new equipment on credit and sell it after completion of the work. Thanks largely to his honesty and openness, Starrett received an eighteen-month construction contract Empire State Building.
The first item on Starrett's schedule was the demolition of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. After people learned of the hotel's demolition, Raskob received thousands of requests for keepsakes of parts of the building. An Iowa resident asked for a piece of metal railing, and several people asked for keys to the room they occupied during their honeymoon. They also asked to send a flagpole, stained glass windows, fireplaces, lamps, bricks, etc. And for some particularly popular items, an auction was held.
The remaining building materials were sold for reuse. The bulk of the debris was hauled to the dock, loaded onto barges, towed fifteen miles offshore and dumped into the Atlantic Ocean.
Even before the hotel was completely demolished, builders had already begun excavating a foundation pit for a new building. Two shifts of 300 people worked day and night, digging into the hard rocky ground.
The building's steel frame was completed on March 17, 1930. Two hundred and ten steel columns made up the vertical frame. Twelve of them stretched the full height of the building, the other parts were from six to eight floors in height.
Passers-by often stopped and raised their heads to look at the workers with admiration. Harold Butcher, a correspondent for the London Daily Herald, described the builders as "casually strolling, crawling, climbing, arm-waving men floating on giant steel frames."
But the most interesting thing was watching the rivet riveters. They worked in groups of four: heater, catcher, thrower and riveter. The heater placed about ten rivets in the fire forge, when they were red hot, he pulled them out with huge tongs and passed them to the thrower, who in turn threw them at a distance of 50 to 75 feet - at the catcher. The catcher caught the rivets using a tin can; they fell into the can while still hot. With his other hand, he used tongs to pull the rivet out of the jar, blow off the ash from it, and then insert it into the hole. The riveter could only hammer it in with a hammer. These people walked in this way all the way from the 1st to the 102nd floor. The last rivet was ceremoniously driven in in the presence of a large number of people - this rivet was cast from pure gold.
Construction frame Empire State Building was a model of efficiency. All work was aimed at saving time, money and human resources. For the prompt delivery of materials to the construction site, a railway was built. Instead of unloading ten million bricks on the construction site, as was usually done, Starrett's workers unloaded them into a special chute that led to a bunker located in the basement. The gutter narrowed at the bottom, which made it possible to control the release of its contents. If necessary, bricks were poured from the bunker directly into carts, which were then lifted to the desired floor. This process eliminated the need to close streets to store bricks, and also eliminated the need to manually load bricks from piles into carts.
Literally simultaneously with the construction of the frame, electricians and plumbers installed the internal communications of the building.
Having built 80 floors, Raskob realized that this was not enough, since the Chrysler Building was becoming even taller. Having added 5 more floors, the Empire State Building became only four feet taller than its competitor. Raskob was worried about the idea that Walter Chrysler was hiding a rod in the building's spire, thanks to which, at the last moment, he could make the skyscraper even taller.
The race of skyscrapers became more and more dramatic. After studying a model of the building, Raskob came up with the idea of building a pier for airships on top of the skyscraper. The new Empire State Building design, which included a pier for landing airships, made the building 1,250 feet (381 m) tall.
Have you ever waited for an elevator in a six or nine story building that seemed to take forever? Or have you ever taken an elevator that stopped at each floor to pick up or drop off a passenger? The Empire State Building had 102 floors, with the capacity to accommodate 15 thousand people. How to get all the people to the right floor without waiting for hours for the elevator or climbing the stairs?
To solve this problem, the architects designed seven categories of elevators, each serving specific floors. For example, group A serves from the third to seventh floor, group B - from the 7th to 18th floor. Thus, if you need to get to the 65th floor, for example, you could take the Group F elevator, which has stops from the 55th to 67th floors, rather than from the 1st to 102nd.
Otis Elevator Company installed 58 passenger and 8 freight elevators in the Empire State Building. Although these elevators could travel at speeds of up to 1,200 feet (365 m) per minute, their speed was limited by building codes to 700 feet (213 m) per minute. A month after the Empire State Building opened, this restriction was lifted and the elevators accelerated to 1,200 feet per minute.
Empire State Building was built within the planned time frame of 1 year and 45 days, which was an amazing achievement. Construction of the building came within budget due to the onset of the Great Depression, during which labor costs were reduced. The total cost of construction work was $40,948,900, instead of the planned $50 million.
The Empire State Building opened on May 1, 1931. The ribbon was cut by New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker, and President Herbert Hoover, with a symbolic push of a button from Washington, lit up the skyscraper with thousands of lights.
Empire State Building received the status of the tallest building in the world and maintained this level until the construction of the first World Trade Center tower in 1972.
Skyscrapers are what sets New York apart from other cities. The most attractive metropolis for tourists has a business card by which everyone recognizes it.
The tallest building in the city has become the main symbol of the “capital of the world,” testifying to the unbending American spirit.
Construction of the first high-rise buildings
The year 1889 marked the first construction of a skyscraper in New York. For forty years, record tall buildings appeared in the city, but on May 1, 1931, the grand opening of the Empire State Buildings took place, which became a real phenomenon in the architectural world. A unique building that had no equal opened its doors to all visitors.
For many years, not a single structure in the world could beat the achievement of American builders.
The legend that gave its name to the city and the skyscraper
There is an interesting story according to which an English navigator, during his journey, sailed along the river that later received his name. He was amazed at the revealed beauty and grandeur of the area and exclaimed in admiration: “This is the new empire!” - which translated means “This is a new empire.”
Later, the state of New York began to be called “imperial”, and the built skyscraper bears the name Empire State Buildings, closely associated with the city.
History of construction
The world's first skyscraper, 102 by 443 meters, was erected in just one year. Initially it was planned to make it a mooring place for airships, but later this beautiful idea was abandoned due to strong air currents.
The history of the creation of the skyscraper is closely connected with the economic boom of the 20s of the last century, which gave rise to a real boom in construction. The sharply increased price of land has caused the construction of multi-storey buildings built at a high technological level.
Observation platforms
On the 86th and last, 102nd floors, there are observation decks, and to get to them, tourists stand for several hours. The cost of a ticket to visit them starts from twenty dollars.
In difficult economic times, suicides came here, and sad statistics tell of 40 deaths.
At the very top rises a spire visible at the entrance to New York, on which special television and radio equipment is installed, and about seven million residents of the metropolis receive the signal from it.
Advanced lighting system
The iconic Empire State Building (New York) is incredibly beautiful after dark. Illuminated by an entire system of 400 lamps, it captivates with its majestic view. By the way, the colors are known in advance; most often they are timed to coincide with some cultural events and city holidays.
Until 2012, spotlights could only create a palette of nine shades. But with the introduction of a new dynamic lighting system that reproduces more than sixteen million colors, even pastels, a variety of “live” effects will surprise the most discerning travelers. The skyscraper shimmering with bright lights will give a memorable sight, so not a single tourist passes by the main attraction of the metropolis.
Where is the Empire State Buildings located?
The hallmark of New York is located at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan.
The closest subway stations to the high-rise are: 34th Street - Herald Square.
- On the eve of the Great Depression, the Empire State Building skyscraper appeared (the translation of the name sounds like “Imperial State Building”), which stood empty for a long time. Due to the global economic crisis, the offices were empty, and the building did not generate profit for twenty years, which made the high-rise's competitors very happy.
- Over the course of a year and forty-five days, it was built by about three and a half thousand immigrants from Europe, who were considered real lucky ones, because during the economic crisis it was simply impossible to find work. The Indians stood apart, they had no fear of heights and worked without insurance.
- The city's tallest building weighs 365,000 tons, and the steel frame, widely used at the time, supports walls made of ten million bricks.
- Equipped with 73 high-speed elevators, the Empire State Buildings are designed like a wedding cake. The upper floors are significantly “compressed” in size and have a much smaller area than the lower ones. To get to them, you need to overcome a staircase consisting of 1860 steps. And it is not surprising that since 1978, indoor sports races have been taking place up to the 86th floor, and the record for the fastest time covering an impressive distance has not been broken since 2003.
- Due to the huge size and large number of people working in the offices, the country's postal department assigned a separate index to the high-rise building.
The most visited skyscraper, the Empire State Buildings, is one of the tallest buildings in the world, the grandeur of which is fully felt by everyone who visits here. A real miracle of the modern world has long become an iconic building, attracting millions of tourists who dream of enjoying the views of New York from a bird's eye view. The fascinating picture, according to visitors to the symbol of the American metropolis, remains in the memory for a long time.