Tim Moore-"Moore About That": Empire State Building Dedicated

Friday, May 1, 2009

Empire State Building Dedicated

Visitors to New York City always include on their list of things to see-the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.

Even after the completion of the now destroyed World Trade Center’s twin towers, which dwarfed the Empire State Building, the sentimental traveler always wants to see what USED to be the tallest structure in the world.

Maybe it was the King Kong scene that forever cemented this building as a landmark-maybe it’s dominance of the New York City skyline for years is the attraction. No matter, people come from around the world to marvel at the building, which was dedicated on this date in 1931. President Hoover flipped a switch in the White House (ceremonial only, of course) which lit the lights of the Empire State Building to the delight of a large crowd on hand.

It’s interesting to know that this building was the culmination of a competition of sorts between General Motors and Chrysler (which filed for bankruptcy yesterday) to see who could build the taller structure. Work on the Chrysler Building had already started. Walter Chrysler’s beautiful structure in mid-town Manhattan ended up being 1,046 feet high. Not to be outdone, John Jacob Raskob of GM assembled a bunch of investors, including former New York Governor and Presidential Candidate Al Smith.

The building was built in just under a year-at $40 million dollars, employing as many as 3,400 workers on any given day-affording employment at good wages during the Great Depression. So fast was the construction that at one point, the frame grew at an amazing four and a half stories a WEEK!

When done, the Empire State Building was 102 stories high-and 1,250 feet (1,454 to the top of the lightning rod). A year later, only 25% of the office space was rented, a testament to the hard times in the 30’s.

In 1972, the Empire State Building lost it’s title as the “World’s Tallest Building” to the World Trade Center—which then lost it to Taiwan’s Taipei 101 Building just a year later. That skyscraper tops out at 1,670 feet!

Some fourteen years later, The Empire State Building again made the news-for the wrong reason as a plane slammed into it in the fog in 1945. Below is a vintage newsreel report of the disaster, which is especially chilling in light of what happened in New York on 9/11 of 2001. This crash, unlike that of the terrorist attacks was of course, accidental.