History of The Empire State Building in New York

Sitting on the corner of 34th and 5th streets on about two acres of land sits one of mans greatest engineering feats, the granddaddy of all modern skyscrapers, the Empire State building. Standing 1453 feet tall and having 102 stories above the ground is the 102nd observatory, which gives us one of the most breath taking views in the world. As I was standing there I couldnt help from being over whelmed, by the fact that the building that I was standing in was over three times as old as me. The Empire State Building has become an icon for New York. When some one says New York, the first thing that I think of is the Empire State Building, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. In 1955 the Empire State Building was named one of the Seven modern Wonders of the western hemisphere. It also became the eighth wonder of the modern world (New York City Insider).

Excavation began on Jan. 22, 1930 of this building designed by Architects from Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates. They started construction on March 17, 1930. They set a fast pace for constructing this building they were going up 4.5 stories a week thats flying (Empire State Building facts page). When I look back on this building I cant believe how they got this thing up so fast. The tools that they had back in the 30s arent even in the same ballpark as the tools that we have today and yet it stands still today as one of the worlds tallest buildings. If you were to ask me back then how high we would be by the year 2000 I would have probably said at least 250 stories and yet we arent anywhere near that mark.

The Empire State Building was completed in 410 days this was including Sundays and holidays in all it took about 7,000,000 man-hours to build this massive building. The expected cost of the Empire State Building was estimated to be about $50,000,000 but thanks to the depression it only cost $24,718,000, which was less then half of the original price tag. Then after you added in the land the price it jumps up to $40,948,900 (Empire State Building facts).

The Empire State Building has its foundation placed at 55 feet below ground. The basement is 35 feet blow ground thats down there. But the lobby is 47 feet above sea level, so I guess that you dont have to worry about flooding very much (Empire State Building facts). This building was built so soundly that it doesnt sway but it actually gives in high winds about 0.25 inches off center. With wind that is at about 110 mph it will only give 1.48 inches (Empire State Building trivia). To show just how strong that the Empire State Building is in 1945 a pilot from the Army Air Corps flying in a dense fog crashed his B-25 into the 79th floor killing 14 people and only causing about 1 million dollars to the building. The structure it self was not effected at all (Empire State Building trivia).

There are two Observatories on the Empire State Building the first is at 1050 feet on the 86th floor where you can get a breath taking view of the city from inside or outside. And then at 1224 feet there is the 102nd floor observatory is at the very top of the building. This observatory is only inside so you dont that feeling of being up there at 102 stories. But the view is still awesome it is like nothing that you have ever seen. The best time for viewing in my mind is at night when the city is all lit up it is so pretty up there.

The Empire State Building has 73 elevators, which can travel at speed of 600 to 1400 feet per minute. At this speed it is possible to travel for the lobby to the 80th floor in only 45 seconds now that is flying. Now heres a job that I wouldnt want to have cleaning all 6500 windows. Now to todays standard that isnt much but man can you imagine having to clean them that would suck.

This is a gigantic structure there is 37 million cubic feet inside the walls. The building tips the scales at 365,000 tons. Only 60,000 of which is the steel framework, which holds the whole thing together. There is 310,000 square feet of marble in this building, which was used for the elevator lobbies and corridors on the floors that contain the offices. There is over 50 miles of radiator pipe in the building to help keep it worm in the wintertime. Air conditioning wasnt installed until 1950 and it has been up graded since. With 70 miles of water pipes in side this building. The building kind of acts as a water tower in the fact that it stores some water in tanks on various floors the highest one being the 101st floor. This water system handles about 26,500 cubic feet of water a day. Tim Allen would love this building because it has power. It has 2,500,000 feet of electrical wire. Each year it goes through 40 million kilowatt hours. Can you imagine want the electric bill would be for one month? And you thought that it had a lot of electrical wires, well it has 1060 miles of phone lines running thought out it. There is enough phone lines there to go to Fort Wayne and back 20 times. Now that is a lot of wire. Each month over 100 tons of garbage is taken away from the building and that is every month. So that is 1200 tons of trash each year. It takes 400 people to make this place look and run as smooth as possible. Of those 400, 150 of them are the maintenance workers they are the ones that make the Empire State Building want it is today (Empire State Building facts).

In conclusion I would like to add if you ever get a chance to go and see the Empire State Building go and do it. The view that you get will take you breath away. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed with it. Where else can you look down on thousands of buildings at one time?