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One of New York's most famous landmarks, the Empire State Building, is celebrating its 75th birthday.

It opened in 1931 during America's Great Depression and took just 13 months to construct.

For 40 years, it was the world's tallest building until the World Trade Center was built and is once again New York City's highest structure.

More pictures of the construction in the Extended Article!

NY Empire State Building turns 75

One of New York’s most famous landmarks, the Empire State Building, is celebrating its 75th birthday.

It opened in 1931 during America’s Great Depression and took just 13 months to construct.

For 40 years, it was the world’s tallest building until the World Trade Center was built and is once again New York City’s highest structure.

More pictures of the construction in the Extended Article!

More than 3,000 workers were employed in its construction which provided jobs during a time of great unemployment.

Fourteen immigrant workers were killed during the operation.

The building’s spire was originally supposed to be a mooring point for air ships, but the idea was quickly abandoned as dangerous.

The composer George Gershwin wrote Rhapsody in Rivets especially for the opening ceremony.

The building was in the headlines just last week after a man attempted to parachute from the 86th floor.

The top tier is often bathed in floodlights to celebrate events from Valentine’s Day to 4 July.

On Monday, the lights will be white just as they were when the building first opened for business.

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING FACTS:
1453 feet (443m) high
102 floors
1,860 steps
Almost 110m visitors since 1931
Struck by lightning 100 times a year
was built at a rate of around four floors a week

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21 Comments

  • Sheesh!

    These people definitely ain’t scared of heights. I’m getting weak in the knees just looking at the pictures.

  • Unbelievable

    How you climb up so high to get those beautiful pictures??

  • I like the last picture!

    When lit up – the top of the building is usually Red, White and Blue except for special ocations, as written in the article. One of those ocations is Chanukkah, when the top is just Blue and White, the colors of the Isreali flag, in honor of the Jewish holiday.

  • Jim

    Funny how in almost eighty years, I-beams and construction have hardly changed.

  • Chaim T

    Can you imagine how deep depresion was that ppl would do these types of things for a piece of bread.

  • noname

    Thank you, this was a good break from the crime reports, and all the shtusim (although we need those reports too)

  • bored on empire

    I actuially find this news refreshing ands enjoyable. The Rebbe spoke many times about the city of NY, and I, even though I am not an official mashpia,rov or melamed, yet I think it’s just nice intersting material, like N’flos HaTeva in the Sichos L’na’ar. The building was a great accomplishment, built with the UNITY of the workers, stayed with ONE goal and did things QUICKLY without great FANFARE

    Hey, Maybe we can learn something from that, Huh?

  • inspired

    great idea to put this on- interesting and refreshing. and
    "chaim"- its much less "shtus" than all the politics and crime we read about. i think it’s beatiful- thank you!!!

  • 1o

    webby, did u take that pic of those 2yoylie men looking at the esb? it’s an amazing pic!

  • quicker

    If this took only 13 months then in theory its posssable to build the world trade center again much quicker then by 2013.

  • just my two cents

    to Bored on Empire

    COuldn’t of said it better!

    just to add, those workers went on mesris nefesh, amny of them endangered thier lived and some even died, yet they understood thier job is, and even though it was not a big pwoer job behind a fancy desk, with alot of kovod, it was a meneul job, they did it and they kept on doing it, not looking for bigger and better.

    Hope others could learn ho’ors in avodas hashem from this

    nosson

  • bored CHer

    I plane once crashed into the building when the pilot coming back from and airshow got cought in a fog patch….

  • Itzik_s

    Sorry – I cannot resist this joke:

    Caption for pic of chassidim:

    Satmar Struggle Leads to Bizarre Empire State Building plot:

    Two supporters of Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum seen here staking out the Empire State Building. The two were later arrested after being found with plans to hoist Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum up to the top of the tower and throw him off.

  • The EAR

    wow those are amazing pictures! if they had the technology then i wouldve just dismissed them as bogus but…freaky heights!