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
1.
Wikimedia
2.
Wikimedia
3.
National Geographic
4.
Wikimedia
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