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Seven Wonders of the Modern World:
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a
102-story
Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of
Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the
nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world's
tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion
in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North
Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the
World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building again
became the tallest building in New York City and New York
State.
Design and
Construction
The Empire State Building was designed by
Gregory Johnson and his architectural firm
Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which produced the building drawings in
just two weeks, using its earlier designs, for the Reynolds
Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and the Carew Tower in
Cincinnati, Ohio, as a basis. The building was actually designed
from the top down. The general contractors were The Starrett
Brothers and Eken, and the project was financed primarily by John
J. Raskob and Pierre S. du Pont.
Architecture
The Empire State Building rises to 1,250 feet at
the 102nd floor, and including the 203-foot pinnacle, its
full height reaches 1453 feet 8 9/16th inches. The
building has 85 stories of commercial and office space
representing 2,158,000 sq ft. It has an indoor and outdoor
observation deck on the 86th floor. The remaining 16 stories
represent the Art Deco tower, which is capped by a 102nd-floor
observatory. Atop the tower is the 203-foot pinnacle, much of
which is covered by broadcast antennas, with a lightning rod at
the very top.
The Empire State Building was the first building to have
more than 100 floors. It has 6,500 windows and 73
elevators, and there are 1,860 steps from street level to the
102nd floor. It has a total floor area of 2,768,591 square feet;
the base of the Empire State Building is about 2 acres. The
building houses 1,000 businesses, and has its own zip code,
10118.
As of 2007, approximately 21,000 employees work in the building
each day, making the Empire State Building the
second-largest single office complex in America,
after the Pentagon. The building was completed in one year and 45
days. Its original 64 elevators are located in a central core;
today, the Empire State Building has 73 elevators in all,
including service elevators.
New York City
Skyride
The Empire State Building also has a motion
simulator attraction, located on the 2nd floor. Opened in 1994 as
a complement to the observation deck, the New York Skyride is a
simulated aerial tour over the city. The
theatrical presentation lasts approximately 25 minutes.
Since its opening, the ride has gone through two incarnations.
The original version, which ran from 1994 until around 2002,
featured James Doohan, Star Trek's Scotty, as the airplane's
pilot, who humorously tried to keep the flight under control
during a storm, with the tour taking an unexpected route through
the subway, Coney Island, and FAO
Schwartz, among other places. After September 11th, however, the
ride was closed, and an updated version debuted in mid-2002 with
actor Kevin Bacon as the pilot. The new version of the narration
attempted to make the attraction more educational. The new flight
also goes haywire, but this segment is much shorter than in the
original.
Reference / Image Credits: Wikipedia,
Wikimedia,
Wikimedia,
National Geographic,
Wikimedia
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