The Empire State Building

At 350 Fifth Avenue, in New York City, looms the majestic Empire State Building, and it has been standing there for the past 77 years. It stands 1,472 feet tall, which is including the large antennae located on the roof. Most of the $50 million budget was funded by two men, John Jacob Raskob and Pierre S. du Pont. The men hired architects Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon, along with general contractors Starrett Brothers and Eken Inc. During the peak hours of construction, there were some 3,400 men working on the building. It was to be the tallest building in the world.

The building rose at a rate of 4.5 stories per week and would take 410 days, including holidays and Sundays, to complete the construction. An area in the center of the building contains vertical circulation, mail chutes, toilets, shafts and corridors. The sizes of the floors diminished as the elevators decreased in number. This center space is a pyramid of unrentable space, encompassed by the rentable space. The interior lobby has walls of marble imported from France, Italy, Belgium and Germany, that reaches three stories. The spire was originally built as a mooring mast for dirigibles, with the 102nd floor as the landing platform. The up-drafts from the building made this hazardous, so the spire was used for radio and television instead.

Statistically, the building contains 6,500 windows, 64 elevators, and is actually the second largest building in the country. There are 70 miles of pipe, 2.5 million feet of electrical wire, and about 9,000 faucets located throughout the building. The total cost, including the land, was $40,948,900. The building was officially opened on May 1, 1931. It was the tallest building in the world for 41 years, until the North Twin Tower was built in 1972.