Page 240 - DK Eyewitness Travel Guides - The World's Must-See Places

Empire State Building,
THE AMERICAS

New York

One of the world's most famous buildings, the Empire State
broke all height records when it was finished. Construction
E MPIRE STATE 8UIL DIH , began in March 1930, not long after the Wall Street Crash,
N!WYORK
'illlaslllngloll, [)c.. and by the time it opened in 1931, it was so hard to find
anyone to fill it that it was nicknamed "the Empty State
ATLANTK Building." Only the popularity of its observatories saved it
OCEAN
from bankruptcy. However, the building was soon seen as a
GVLF OF
MEXICO
symbol of New York throughout the world.
THE SKYSCRAPER RACE
With the construction of Paris's E tffe l Tower in ~ Fifth Avenue Entrance lobby
A relief image of the skyscraper is
1889, US architects were challenged to build superimposed on a map of New York
ever higher, and at the start of the 2Oth century State in the marble-lined lobby.
the skyscraper race began By 1 929, New York's
Bank of Manhattan Building, at 972ft (283m),
was the city's tallest skyscraper, but Walter
Chrysler, the famous car manufacturer, was
planning to top that hetght John Jakob Raskob,
of rival General Motors, deoded to jotn the
race and, With Aerre S DuPont was am~()"
investor in the Emp1re State prqect. Chrysler
kept the he1ght of ns budding a secret so
Raskob had to be fleXIble 1n his planntng He
f1rst aimed at building 85 floors but msure of
Chrysler's goal, he kept go1ng until the building
reached 102 floors, and 1:t,t addtng a tower,
beat CITysler by 204ft (62 m)

THE EMPitE STATE'S DESIGNERS
The Shreve, Lamb & Harmon company had
designed some of the most notable skyscrapers
in Manhattan. By the t1me work on the Empire
State Building began, they had designed seven
buildings, including 40 Wall Street (now the
Trump Building), at 70 floors, vvhich was com-
pleted in only 11 months. Wtth a team of top
engineers and contractors, us ing up to 3,000
workers, the Empire State Building, too, was A Fa~ade
completed under budget and in record time. The main entrance has a
central window with cross-
hatched panes that bring
BUILDING SKYSCRAPERS
natural light into the lobby.
The modern skyscraper would not have been
possible without several buddtng Innovations.
A Sky Builder
Elevators had been 1n use for some tm e, but it
Suspended high abw e Rfth Avenue,
was not mtd Ehsha Ot1s's 1854 demonstraton this steel WOfker was one of many men
of his safety lnke that the pl.bhc began to trust whose bravery was well documented
them. The second necessary development was in a series of photographs taken during ART DECO DESIGN
the construction of the building.
the structural steel skeleton, seen 1n the 'M>rld's The Empire State
first skyscraper 1n 1885 Wrth th1s construction, A AI Smith, the former governor of New Building is considered
the walls became merely a sheathtng, not a York State, with a model of the Empire New Yorlc's last Art
load-beanng element, and enormously tall, State Building Deco masterpiece. The
heavy buldtngs could now nse ever htgher mo.tement flourished
Building 1n the heart of Manhattan presented K EY DATES from the 1920s to the
1940s and was noted
a further problem. large amounts of essential
March 1930 1931 1977 2002 for its use of crisp,
construction matenal could not be kept in the graphic lines, geometric
street To solve this, the alum 1num elements Building work begins. The Empire S tate The first annual [))nald Trump sells shapes, and vertical
were prefabricated and only three days' worth By O:tober, 88 fbors Building opens: It is Empire State Run-Up the Empire State setbacks evocative of
are completed, and the tallest building In takes place. Building to a property
of structural steel was kept on s ite, creating an there are 14 to go. the world. consortium Aztec pyramid temples.
extremely complicated organizational job.