Empire State Building description and photos - USA: New York (Topic)

Empire State Building description and photos - USA: New York. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Empire State Building.

Photo and description

It's impossible to be in New York and not visit the Empire State Building. The most famous skyscraper in the world has a memorable appearance, an excellent observation deck and a fantastic story.

The 102-storey skyscraper at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street was created by two legendary businessmen - Pierre Samuel Dupont and John Jacob Raskob (headed by DuPont and General Motors). Having bought a plot in Manhattan, they joined the battle for the tallest building in the world. The pace of design was incredible: the architect William Lam completed the drawings in two weeks. In January 1930, they began to dig a foundation pit, in March - erect structures.

3400 workers, including the Mohawk Indians (they have no fear of heights) erecting the building at an amazing speed: four and a half floors a week. In total, construction took fifteen months. The building was originally designed to be four feet taller than the nearby Chrysler Building - but what if the rivals install a spire at the last minute and win the race? John Raskob decided that the skyscraper "needed a hat" - a mast was erected on the Empire State Building for mooring airships.

On May 1, 1931, President Hoover, pressing a symbolic button in Washington, officially energized the skyscraper, and he lit up with light. But it was a light in the desert of despair - the Great Depression broke out in the country. The day after the opening of the 443.2-meter building, a laid-off worker jumped from it, taking suicide.

Until the fifties, the Empire State Building was undergoing trials. There were few tenants, the building was half empty. On July 28, 1945, on a foggy day, a B-25 bomber crashed into a skyscraper, losing its course. Thirteen people died, 19-year-old cleaning lady Betty Lou Oliver collapsed in an elevator from the 75th floor and survived.

The building fell in love with suicides - so, on May 12, 1947, twenty-four-year-old Evelyn McHale, who had kissed a few hours before last time the groom, rushed from the 86th floor. The girl's body crashed into a UN limousine. In the picture taken by a photography student, she seems to be asleep, clutching a pearl necklace in her hand. This photo is one of the most famous images of the 20th century, it was reproduced in his works by Andy Warhol.

The economic recovery revived the building, in which office premises are located on 85 floors with a total area of more than 200 thousand square meters. The mooring mast was not useful for airships: strong winds would not have allowed these giants to moor. In 1952, the mast was replaced with antennas, and almost all FM stations in New York broadcast from here. The interiors of the building are decorated in Art Deco style, the ceilings in the hall are covered with magnificent paintings depicting the age of machines. In the dark, the skyscraper is illuminated with colored spotlights, and the color combinations correspond to various solemn dates. From the local observation deck, you can see the whole of New York, over the past decades it has been visited by 110 million people.

The Empire State Building has become an iconic phenomenon of American culture: in the films "King Kong" of 1933 and 2005 on its a giant monkey is fighting airplanes at the top, in the 2004 film "The Sky Captain and the World of the Future" the airship "Hindenburg III" nevertheless sticks to the mooring mast, in the "Independence Day" the building is destroyed by aliens.

The skyscraper remained the tallest in the world for 42 years until it was surpassed by the North Tower of the World Trade Center in 1972 (which collapsed on September 11, 2001). Now it is only the twenty-second highest in the world. But the charm of a strict stone "pencil" belonging to an irrevocably bygone era captivates everyone who stands with their heads raised at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street.

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Topic: Empire State Building description and photos - USA: New York.