Plane Bomber Crash B-25 Negatives Empire State Building X 11 New York 1945 Usaf

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176278959886 PLANE BOMBER CRASH B-25 NEGATIVES EMPIRE STATE BUILDING X 11 NEW YORK 1945 USAF. 11 NEGATIVES WITH ORIGINAL ENVELOPE AND DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME OF VTHE NEGATIVES ON THIN PAPER. PHOTOGRAPHS ARE BY JOURNALIST PHOTOGRAPHER WILBERT BLANCHE AND EACH MEASURES 4X5 INCHES. ALL WERE TAKEN A DAY AFTER THE PLANE CRASH AT THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING JULY 28, 1945. THE MANILA ENVELOPE HAS WEAR AND TEARS. THE NEGATIVES ARE FROM 1945 AND SOME HAVE YELLOWED.  COULD MAKE NICE POSTERS. . . . Photographer Wilbert Blanche duplicate Date July 28, 1945 Story Plane Crashes Into Empire State Building on Upper Floors Names (L to R) l: Priest gives last rites to smoke blackened victim of plane crash in an ambulance about to start to hospital. 2: FPoliceman looks over heat buckled partitions on the 79th floor where most of the deaths took place. 3: Looking up from the 78th floor on the north side of the building into the huge hole blasted between the 78th and 79th floors. 4: This slightly burned man receives first-aid from two of the great number of doctors and nurses called to the scene. 5; 6: The chhrred remins of the fire victims being removed to the morgue wagons parked on 34th St. 7: Police, firemen, one with a walkie-talkie, reporters and photographers look over the remains of what was once an office. 8: Wreckage of the plane was alson strewn along 34th St, n Military Police gunrd each piece. 10: Smoke blackened woman, seared by the gasoline fed flames being taken to ambulance. 11; 12: Injured fireman being carried to Fire Dept. Ambulance. 9: Injured girl being carried to waiting ambulance by an unidendified civilian, Photographer made this picture on the run. 13: Flame scarred 79th floor being exameined by reporters and photographers. 14: Donald Mahony, 17 year old sailor, hero of the disaster, helps burned girl into an ambulance. 15: Gaping hole blasted in the north side of the building between the 78th and 79th floors. 16: Pieces of the plane still dangled from the hole it made during the crash. This picture was made from the 77th floor lookimg west.and up. 17; 18: The charred remains of the fire-victims piled on top of desks being examined for means of identification. 19: Application blanks with pictures attached weire found in the 79th floor offices, They were searched to try to identiiy the burnt victims. F21-2M Setz-1-15 153 On July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber of the United States Army Air Forces crashed into the Empire State Building in New York City, while flying in thick fog. The accident caused the death of fourteen people and damage estimated at US$1 million, although the building's structural integrity was not compromised.
On July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber of the United States Army Air Forces crashed into the Empire State Building in New York City, while flying in thick fog. The accident caused the death of fourteen people (three crewmen and eleven people in the building) and damage estimated at US$1 million (equivalent to about $14M in 2019), although the building's structural integrity was not compromised.[1] Contents 1 Details 2 In popular culture 3 See also 4 References 5 External links Details A black-and-white photo of airplane wreckage embedded in the facade, high up The plane embedded in the side of the building On Saturday, July 28, 1945, Lieutenant Colonel William F. Smith Jr. was piloting a B-25 Mitchell bomber on a routine personnel transport mission from Bedford Army Air Field in Massachusetts to Newark Metropolitan Airport in New Jersey.[2][3][4] Smith asked for clearance to land, but he was advised of zero visibility.[5] Proceeding anyway, he became disoriented by the fog and turned right instead of left after passing the Chrysler Building.[6] At 9:40 a.m., the aircraft crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building, between the 78th and 80th floors, making an 18-by-20-foot (5.5 m × 6.1 m) hole in the building[7] into the offices of the War Relief Society and the National Catholic Welfare Council. One engine shot through the south side opposite the impact and flew as far as the next block, dropping 900 feet (270 m) and landing on the roof of a nearby building and causing a fire that destroyed a penthouse art studio. The other engine and part of the landing gear fell down an elevator shaft. The resulting fire was extinguished in 40 minutes. The Empire State Building fire is the only significant fire at such a height[vague] to be brought under control by firefighters.[7] Between 50 and 60 sightseers were on the 86th floor observation deck when the crash happened. Fourteen people were killed: Colonel Smith, Staff Sergeant Christopher Domitrovich, and Navy Aviation Machinist's Mate Albert Perna, who was hitching a ride, and eleven civilians in the building.[1] Perna's body was not found until two days later, when search crews discovered that it had entered an elevator shaft and fallen to the bottom. The other two crewmen were burned beyond recognition.[8] Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver was thrown from her elevator car on the 80th floor and suffered severe burns. First aid workers placed her on another elevator car to transport her to the ground floor, but the cables supporting that car had been damaged in the incident, and the car fell 75 stories, ending up in the basement.[9] Oliver survived the fall but had a broken pelvis, back and neck when rescuers found her amongst the rubble.[10] This remains the world record for the longest survived elevator fall.[6] Despite the damage and loss of life, the building was open for business on many floors on the next Monday morning, less than 48 hours later. The crash spurred the passage of the long-pending Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, as well as the insertion of retroactive provisions into the law, allowing people to sue the government for the accident.[10] In popular culture The events of the crash were the subject of an episode of the History channel documentary Disasters of the Century, entitled "It Came from the Sky". The documentary was made in 2001.[citation needed] See also 1946 40 Wall Street Plane crash El Al Flight 1862 September 11 attacks 2002 Tampa airplane crash 2002 Pirelli Tower airplane crash 2005 Iranian Air Force C-130 crash 2006 New York City plane crash 2010 Austin suicide attack 2014 Wichita King Air crash Skyscraper fire I heard a big plane hit the Empire State Building in World War II. Why didn't the skyscraper collapse like the World Trade Center did? - question from Tina Weaver It is surprising so little information about this event is available on the Internet, but over 50 years prior to the terror attacks of September 11, New York City's skyline bore the brunt of another aerial disaster. The accident occurred on 28 July 1945, a seemingly peaceful Saturday morning in America's largest city. The war in Europe had already ended, and Japan would also surrender to the Allies in just a few weeks. North face of the Empire State Building looking south North face of the Empire State Building looking south One of the many who contributed to the war effort was Lt. Col. Bill Smith, a decorated pilot who had flown a B-17 Flying Fortress for the US Army Air Force. Now returned from Europe, Smith was put in charge of a routine flight to ferry a B-25D Mitchell bomber from Bedford, Massachusetts, to Newark, New Jersey. The bomber, operating under the call sign Army 0577, was nicknamed "Old John Feather Merchant" and had been converted into a VIP transport. Smith was to pick up his commanding officer at Newark before continuing on to Sioux Falls Army Air Base in South Dakota. The B-25 was a medium twin-engine bomber, far smaller than the B-17 Smith flew over Europe, but both designs saw widespread use throughout the War. Accompanying Smith on his journey was SSgt. Christopher Domitrovich and an aviation machinist's mate from the Navy named Albert Perna. Perna had hitched a ride on the flight to return to Brooklyn and console his parents following the death of their other son who lost his life in the Pacific. The B-25 departed on its fateful mission just before 9 AM headed south for New Jersey. Less than an hour into the flight, however, Smith received warnings from the New York Municipal Airport in Queens (now called LaGuardia Airport) that thick fog had enveloped the city. The field's control tower ominously reported, "We're unable to see the top of the Empire State. Suggest you land here." Though Smith acknowledged the message, he apparently ignored it and requested clearance to continue to Newark. The plane was only minutes from LaGuardia but lost in a dense fog that limited visibility. Flight rules of the time required aircraft to maintain an altitude of at least 2,000 ft (610 m) over the city, but Smith dropped to less than half that height hoping to regain sight of the ground. That he surely did, but the pilot had misjudged his location and soon found his plane bounding through the concrete canyons of the city's skyscrapers. The bomber soon attracted attention from alarmed citizens as its roaring engines echoed off the facades of buildings below. Those working in the upper stories of office buildings raced to windows to watch in amazement as a plane flew beneath them, turning and banking rapidly as its wingtips barely missed some structures. One observer was Army Air Force Lt. Frank Covey who spotted the doomed B-25 from his room in the Biltmore Hotel. Covey watched in disbelief as the plane barely missed the New York Central Office Building and was no higher than its 22nd floor. North American B-25 Mitchell bomber North American B-25 Mitchell bomber The bomber raced west roughly following 42nd Street before turning south near the intersection with 5th Avenue. This turn proved a fatal mistake as it brought the lumbering plane directly towards the north face of the world's tallest building. Stan Lomax, a local sports announcer for radio station WOR, was driving to work when he first noticed the sound of propeller engines of the approaching B-25. As he looked up, he yelled, "Climb, you fool, climb!" from his car window. At the last moment, Lt. Col. Smith must have seen the profile of the Empire State Building looming out of the fog. He tried to pull up while banking away, but the distance was too short and the bomber's velocity too great. At approximately 9:49 AM, the B-25 plunged into the 78th and 79th floors of the skyscraper some 975 ft (295 m) above ground level. The plane impacted at an estimated speed of 200 miles per hour (320 km/h) making the building shake under the force of the collision. The high-speed crash also caused the plane's fuel tanks to explode, sending a fireball 100 ft (30 m) high and releasing blazing gasoline down the facade of the building. Sheets of flame also raced through the maze of hallways and stairwells inside the building, reaching at least as far down as the 75th floor. The crash tore a hole about 18 ft (5.5 m) wide by 20 ft (6 m) tall in the 34th Street exterior of the Empire State Building. While the 78th and 79th floors bore the brunt of the damage, one of the B-25's engines fell down an elevator shaft and set off a major fire in the basement. The other engine hurtled across the building and tore through seven walls before emerging from the 33rd Street side of the tower. The debris crashed through the roof of a thirteen-story building across the street where another fire erupted. Other heavy wreckage, including the landing gear, also caused damage to the Empire State and nearby buildings while Stan Lomax reportedly saw part of a wing catapulting towards Madison Avenue. Damage done to the Empire State Building by the B-25 impact Damage done to the Empire State Building by the B-25 impact Crowds soon gathered near the base of the wounded skyscraper. According to Walter Daniels of the New York Times, "People sensed disaster. Everyone started running towards Fifth Avenue." The raging fire burned away the fog treating the assembled masses to a clear view of the spectacle above. As flaming fuel and wreckage showered down, however, spectators fled the area to find cover under nearby buildings. Taxi driver Raphael Gomez brought his vehicle to a screeching halt as debris rained down on his cab. "I was so scared, I just sat there. People were running all over," he stated. After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and long years of world conflict, many naturally thought the city was under attack. This confusion is exemplified by one of the building's workers Doris Pope. "That day, as we were getting ready to take our coffee break, we heard this terrible noise, and the building started to shake. ... As we looked out our third-floor window, we saw debris fall on to the street. We immediately thought New York was being bombed." Another witness to the disaster was Donald Maloney, a 17-year-old apprentice pharmacist's mate in the US Coast Guard. Maloney had been shopping nearby when he saw the crash and darted into a drug store. "Give me morphine, hypos, needles, first aid kits! It's an emergency," he demanded. Maloney then raced into the Empire State Building to render aid to victims of the crash. The need for help was greatest on the 79th floor where the offices of the National Catholic Welfare Conference were located. On this Saturday morning, about 20 people were present. Most were young female clerks organizing aid for refugees of the war. Six of the girls never had a chance as they were engulfed in flame and died instantly at their desks, and more workers succumbed to the flames as they tried to escape. Another victim was a female publicist thrown through a window by the blast. Paul Dearing, who was working in the far corner of the Catholic offices, was also killed after he leapt from a window and struck a ledge a few stories down. The rest of the aid workers miraculously reached the safety of a fireproof stairwell required of high-rise buildings. Catherine O'Connor, who was working near the crash site, further describes the horror of the disaster: "The plane exploded within the building. There were five or six seconds--I was tottering on my feet trying to keep my balance--and three-quarters of the office was instantaneously consumed in this sheet of flame. One man was standing inside the flame. I could see him. It was a co-worker, Joe Fountain. His whole body was on fire. I kept calling to him, 'Come on, Joe; come on, Joe.'" Though Fountain managed to walk out of the fire and escaped the building, his injuries were too severe and he died a few days later. Another victim was a janitor who was trapped by fire and lost his life on the 78th floor. Luckily, this floor was only used for mechanical spaces and storage. Had it been occupied, the death toll could have been considerably higher. News of the disaster on the front page of the New York Times News of the disaster on the front page of the New York Times Yet for each tragic death, dozens more defied the odds and escaped the conflagration. A group of 60 men, women, and children were visiting the observation deck on the 86th floor when they were hurled across the building by the B-25 impact. Thick smoke from the intense inferno quickly filled the floor making breathing difficult. Guides were unable to find keys to the glass doors onto the open balcony outside but soon broke them open to let in fresh air. The group was then led down 86 flights of the fireproof stairwell to safety. As the group passed the 80th floor, they heard pounding on the walls and screams of those trapped inside. This floor held the offices of Daniel Nordan and his assistant Arthur Palmer. Nordan later recalled, "We were lifted three feet out of our chairs and thrown to the floor--I thought it was a Japanese bomb!" The pair tried to flee into a corridor but they were driven back by intense flames from the crash just one floor down. They also discovered a female elevator operator who was badly burned and panicking. The group was only able to escape after the two men used a hammer to break through a wall to another office leading to an undamaged hallway and the fireproof staircase. The pair carried the injured girl through the passage and down the stairs to rescue workers. The most amazing tale of survival, however, belongs to another elevator operator named Betty Lou Oliver. The 20-year-old woman had just opened the door to her elevator on the 75th floor when the B-25 exploded. The blast threw Oliver out of the elevator and across the hall where two other women from a nearby office found her. Oliver was badly burned, and the two women gave her first aid before helping her into another elevator to reach medical care. Just as the doors closed, the elevator cables snapped sending Oliver and a second female operator plummeting towards the ground. Coast Guard pharmacist Donald Maloney was waiting for an elevator on the ground floor when he heard the screams of the two girls as their elevator car hurtled past. Maloney and nearby firemen raced downstairs, fearing the worst. Once the firemen used axes to break through a wall, the guardsman crawled into the elevator car and discovered both women battered but still alive. Emergency hydraulics applied brakes to the plunging car, and severed cables hanging beneath the elevator piled up and acted like a coiled spring that slowed the elevator as it fell. Air trapped within the confined space was also compressed by the falling car building up pressure that slowed the elevator's descent. Maloney found Betty Lou Oliver slumped in a corner and covered in debris. Though she was burned and dazed with both legs smashed, her first words upon seeing her rescuer were, "Thank God, the Navy's here! I'll be OK now." Victim of the fire receiving treatment Victim of the fire receiving treatment Maloney treated both women and left them in the care of the firemen before racing back upstairs to help more victims. He gave aid to a badly burned man in the lobby as well as several other injured people before joining a priest for the long climb up the skyscraper. Not knowing exactly where the crash occurred, the pair opened the stairwell door every few floors trying to find where the injured might be. As they passed the 70th floor, the men began encountering pools of fuel and oil, scorched walls, and wafting smoke. By the time they reached the 79th floor, the only people left were those who had already perished in the fiery crash. Despite its initial intensity, the fire largely exhausted itself within 35 minutes and left only charred, smoldering ruins by the time rescuers arrived. The men were soon joined by New York's Mayor La Guardia who, in spite of his rather plump physique, had also climbed all 79 stories. Those present commented on the mayor's flaring temper as he shook his fists and muttered, "I told the Army not to fly over the city!" Mayor La Guardia later gave Donald Maloney a commendation for the bravery he showed on that tragic morning. Another 17-year-old boy celebrated for his heroism was a Brooklyn student named Herbert Fabian who took over an abandoned elevator and rescued 20 people trapped between the 30th and 40th floors. Harold Smith, who worked on the 62nd floor, was also congratulated for helping firemen rescue three women trapped on a higher level. The final toll of the disaster was 14 dead and 26 injured. Among those killed were the three crew of the bomber and eleven victims in the building. Nine of the civilian deaths were office workers while the others were a janitor and an elevator operator. The body of the Navy hitchhiker Albert Perna was found two days after the crash at the bottom of an elevator shaft, but the other two crewmen were burned beyond recognition. The crash caused $1 million in damages but workers were reportedly able to repair the building within just three months. Workers had to repair or replace bent girders, seal the walls, and restore the two most heavily damaged floors. Approximate location of the B-25 crash circled in red Approximate location of the B-25 crash circled in red Yet the disaster could have been far worse. The low number of casualties is mostly due to the fact the accident occurred on a Saturday when only a few businesses and relief organizations were open, and roughly 1,500 people were in the building at the time of the crash. On a normal weekday, the Empire State Building housed over 15,000 workers and stood at one of the busiest street corners in the world. The intersection of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue would normally see the passage of over 40,000 vehicles and 200,000 pedestrians in an average day. The death toll might also have been much higher had the B-25 been carrying a bomb load and more fuel since a heavier plane would have done considerably more structural damage. As it was, the bomber was about to land and near its minimum weight. We will go into greater detail documenting the collapse of the World Trade Center in a future article, but a number of factors explain why the Empire State Building suffered relatively minor damage while the twin towers were catastrophically destroyed. First, the energy of impact sustained by the buildings differed by orders of magnitude. The B-25 that struck the Empire State Building weighed approximately 21,500 lb (9,760 kg) and was traveling around 200 mph (320 km/h). The kinetic energy it created in the collision was about 30 million ft-lb (40 million Joules). The twin towers of the World Trade Center, by comparison, were struck by Boeing 767 airliners traveling over twice as fast and weighing nearly 15 times as much as a B-25. The energy of impact for the two planes ranged from 2 billion ft-lb (2.6 billion Joules) to 3 billion ft-lb (4.1 billion Joules), some 60 to 100 times greater than that absorbed by the Empire State Building. This estimate is also conservative since it does not account for the energy released by the exploding jet fuel, which greatly exceeded the energy released by the much smaller B-25 fuel supply as well. The greater kinetic energy allowed the 767 aircraft to penetrate much further into the twin towers than the B-25 was able to do at the Empire State Building. Most of the B-25 impact was absorbed by the building's exterior wall leaving very little to damage the interior structure. The 767 impacts, however, not only produced gaping holes in the WTC exterior but also destroyed much of the structural core at the center of each tower. Smoke rising from the Empire State Building after the impact Smoke rising from the Empire State Building after the impact Even so, the impact alone does not fully explain what doomed the World Trade Center towers. A fatal contributing factor was the fires ignited by the exploding fuel tanks. A 767 has a maximum fuel capacity 35 times greater than that of a B-25D. The aircraft that struck the Empire State Building was nearly out of fuel when it crashed while each 767 still carried approximately half of its maximum fuel load at impact. The Empire State Building fire exhausted its supply of fuel rapidly while that at the World Trade Center ignited the office contents across several floors and burned much longer. The type of fuel carried may also be a significant factor. The B-25 burned avgas, a high-octane version of gasoline still used aboard piston engine aircraft today. The 767 instead uses Jet-A, a derivative of kerosene that fuels all commercial jetliners. Jet fuel tends to reach higher temperatures than gasoline causing the fires in the WTC to burn more intensely than that in the Empire State Building. Aggravating the situation further was the size of the holes torn in the building exteriors. Fires in office buildings generally consume the oxygen available in the enclosed space rapidly limiting the growth and strength of the fire. The exterior holes, however, allowed fresh air to be pulled into the buildings helping the fires to move through the building and consume additional combustible material. Since the damage to the facades of both WTC towers was far more extensive than at the Empire State Building, more air was available to encourage the fires. The air at the Empire State Building was also damp because of the foggy conditions and may have played a role in limiting the extent of the fires in that structure. Furthermore, the Empire State Building is a reinforced masonry structure in which the structural steel beams are encased within limestone walls or slabs of concrete 8 inches (20 cm) thick. This heavy mass provides exceptional fire protection that insulates the steel within from excessive heating. Many modern skyscrapers like the WTC towers have eliminated this extensive use of stone and concrete to reduce cost. The World Trade Center instead relied on lightweight spay-on coatings for insulation. This insulation was simply blown off the WTC structure by the 767 collisions exposing the steel beams and floor trusses to the raging fire. The Empire State Building is also a heavily compartmented structure. Each floor is self contained with its own independent heating and cooling ducts, elevator and utility shafts are surrounded by thick masonry walls, fire partitions separate each floor and rooms within each floor, and the fireproof stairway prevents smoke from rising to upper stories. These features make it very difficult for fire to spread beyond a limited area. The World Trade Center instead offered vast open floor spaces that appealed to tenants but allowed fires to spread far more easily. Moreover, the fire suppression system in both towers lacked redundancy and the 767 collisions cut off the water supply to the sprinklers. For these reasons, the Empire State Building is still considered one of the world's safest skyscrapers in a fire. The Empire State Building crash of 1945 also offers insights into the Pentagon attack on September 11. Both buildings are reinforced masonry structures built using similar methods and materials, although the Pentagon has been considerably upgraded to survive impact damage. One topic often used to promote conspiracy theories is the size of the hole in the exterior wall of the Pentagon created by the Boeing 757 that struck it. The 757 has a wingspan of almost 125 ft (38 m), yet most conspiracy sites suggest the impact hole is only 15 to 65 ft (4.5 to 20 m) wide. The same can be said of the Empire State Building where a plane with a wingspan greater than 67 ft (20.5 m) created a hole no more than 20 ft (6 m) across. Photo taken by Ernie Sisto as he crawled onto a ledge and two people held his legs Photo taken by Ernie Sisto as he crawled onto a ledge and two people held his legs Both aircraft caused damage consistent with the size of the plane and the structural materials used in the facade. Most of the mass of a plane is contained within the fuselage, inner wing structure, and engine nacelles. These portions of the aircraft have the greatest power to penetrate a wall upon impact, and the sizes of the impact holes at both the Empire State Building and the Pentagon are consistent with the dimensions of the fuselage and nacelles of the B-25 and 757, respectively. The outer wings and tail surfaces are much lighter structures consisting mostly of a thin skin enclosing empty space. Upon colliding a thick wall composed of a dense material like stone or concrete, these light aerodynamic structures simply disintegrate. The impact often produces surface gouging and perhaps small, localized holes, but the lighter aircraft structures generally cannot penetrate a reinforced masonry wall. Close examination of both buildings shows gouges extending outward from the central impact hole as would be expected from the collision of wings. In the aftermath of the 1945 crash, flight rules over New York City were strengthened and the Army Air Force began requiring additional training for pilots transitioning to domestic flying after combat overseas. Tenants also started returning to the Empire State Building as soon as repairs were completed, and the Catholic Relief Services still maintain offices on the 79th floor today. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver recovered from her injuries and continues to hold the record for surviving the longest fall in an elevator, over 1,000 feet. Additional information on the historic event can be found in this contemporary radio report from the Mutual Broadcast System. The clip even includes an audio recording of the B-25 flying over a nearby building and the sound of its subsequent crash. - answer by Jeff Scott, 17 June 2007 Update! Although the B-25 crash brought new awareness to the danger of low-altitude flight over New York City, a nearly identical accident occurred less than a year later on 20 May 1946. A small twin-engined C-45 transport plane of the US Army Air Force was on a navigation training flight and trying to land at Newark when it became lost in fog. At approximately 8:10 PM, the aircraft crashed into the 58th floor of the north side of 40 Wall Street killing its crew of four. The accident fortunately happened at night when the building was virtually empty. Only two people were at the site, a bank guard on the 1st floor and a US Navy officer named Charles Atlee working at the Officer's Discharge Center on the 36th floor. Atlee reported, "I was thrown out of my chair and across the office." The fuselage tore a hole 20 ft (6 m) wide by 10 ft (3 m) high in the exterior wall but the engines and wings were torn off and unable to penetrate inside, suggesting the impact speed was low. One engine struck a nearby building and started a small fire while the second fell into Wall Street. The 70-story skyscraper, originally the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building and briefly the tallest building in the world, was repaired and is today also called The Trump Building. More recently, a 42-story condominium building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan suffered an aircraft collision. Major league baseball pitcher Cory Lidle of the New York Yankees and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger were flying along the East River on 11 October 2006 when the pair crashed into the Belaire Apartments building at a speed of approximately 115 mph (185 km/h). Lidle was owner of the single-engine Cirrus SR20 but it is unknown which pilot was flying the plane at the time of the crash. Damage to the Belaire Apartments after Cory Lidle's 2006 crash Damage to the Belaire Apartments after Cory Lidle's 2006 crash The accident occurred as the aircraft was traveling through a narrow flight corridor above the river. As the pilots flew north nearing the end of this corridor, it appears they attempted to make a U-turn back towards the south. Their efforts were complicated by a stiff crosswind, and investigators concluded pilot error caused the plane to strike the 30th floor of the Belaire Apartments. Both Lidle and Tyler were killed in the crash while 21 residents of the apartments were injured. Most injuries were due to fire that engulfed several apartments after the collision. The most seriously injured was Ilana Benhuri who was sitting in the room most of the aircraft debris entered. The Empire State Building and 40 Wall Street are both reinforced masonry structures while the Belaire Apartments is a reinforced concrete building. Thanks to the excellent fire protection afforded by this type of construction as well as the small size and low speed of the aircraft that struck each building, the structural damage suffered was minor. - answer by Greg Alexander, 30 September 2007 Related Topics: I've seen pictures of engine wreckage at the Pentagon after 9/11. Your site says the engine of a 757 is over 6 feet across but this piece is way smaller than that. Does it prove that whatever hit the Pentagon was not a 757 and the government is lying about it? n July 28, 1945, residents of New York City were horrified when an airplane crashed into the Empire State Building, leaving 14 dead. Though the events of that day have largely faded from public memory, they remain etched in the minds of those who experienced them. It was the waning days of World War II, and a B-25 bomber was flying a routine mission ferrying servicemen from Massachusetts to New York City's LaGuardia Airport. The day was foggy. Capt. William F. Smith, who had led some of the most dangerous missions in WWII in Europe, was the pilot. When Smith arrived in the New York area, the weather was getting worse. He called LaGuardia and requested a clearance to land. With nearly zero visibility, the tower suggested that Smith not land. "Smith said, 'Thank you very much' and signed off," says Arthur Weingarten, who wrote The Sky Is Falling, about what happened that day. "He ignored it … So he started to make a little bit of a turn that brought him over midtown Manhattan, and as he straightened out, the clouds broke up enough for him to realize he was flying among skyscrapers." The bomber crashed into the Empire State Building, the tallest building in the world at the time. The collision killed Smith, two others on the plane and 11 people who worked inside the building. Therese Fortier Willig, who was 20 years old at the time, worked for the Catholic Relief Services on the 79th floor. "In the other side of the office, all I could see was flames," Willig said. "Mr. Fountain was walking through the office when the plane hit the building and he was on fire -- I mean, his clothes were on fire, his head was on fire. Six of us managed to get into this one office that seemed to be untouched by the fire and close the door before it engulfed us. There was no doubt that the other people must have been killed." Gloria Pall worked for the United Service Organization's headquarters on the 56th floor. "I was at the file cabinet and all of a sudden the building felt like it was just going to topple over," Pall said. "It threw me across the room, and I landed against the wall. People were screaming and looking at each other. We didn't know what to do. We didn't know if it was a bomb or what happened. It was terrifying." The fire trapped hundreds of office workers, including Willig and Pall. There was panic. A man named Paul Dearing jumped. When the plane hit, parts of the engine flew ahead and severed the lifting cables of two elevators on the 79th floor, according to Weingarten. The elevators crashed to the subbasement. In one of the elevators was a 19-year-old elevator operator named Betty Lou Oliver. She broke her pelvis, back and neck -- but she survived. Willig recalled what she was thinking as the fire burned on the 79th floor. "It was a very small universe at that point. You're stuck there in an island, with fire all around us," Willig said. "A couple of the women had passed out from the smoke, and I had a handkerchief in my pocket, and so I used that to cover my nose and my mouth to protect me from the fumes. And somebody had opened the window. And I'm sitting there, and I thought about my rings. And I thought I won't be around to have them, someone else might as well have use out of them. So I took them off my fingers and threw them out the window." Willig said a man on the street below saw the office workers trapped in the building and signaled to them to stay where they were. "I guess he was trying to give us some solace -- to say don't worry," Willig said. "And that was a connection with the rest of the world. We all felt a little better to know that someone knew we were there." "And all of a sudden here were firemen and they're coming to rescue us, all dressed up in their raincoats, whatever they wear," Willig said. "It was just wonderful. We climbed out through the broken glass. I was just grateful to be alive." Pall said she didn't know what happened until she was out of the building. "I saw crowds of people just looking at each other and I said, 'What happened? What happened?' " Pall said. "He pointed up to the 79th floor and I looked up and saw the tail of a B-25 bomber." Eight months after the crash, the U.S. government offered money to families of the victims. Some accepted, but others initiated a lawsuit that resulted in landmark legislation. The Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, for the first time, gave American citizens the right to sue the federal government. At the moment that Captain Smith crashed the plane into the Empire State Building, Betty Lou Oliver was working on the 80th floor as an elevator attendant. The crash caused her to be thrown out of her vehicle, and as well as suffering from severe burns, Betty had a broken pelvis, back, and neck. They were terrible injuries, but it was clear that Betty would survive as first aid workers helped her and placed her on an elevator to the ground floor. Soon, she would be driven to the hospital for proper treatment. Meanwhile, Willig was still in shock over what happened on the 79th floor. In the immediate aftermath of the crash, she was certain it was all over for everyone on the floor. Speaking years later, Willig described it as a ‘small universe’ as it was akin to being stuck on a small island surrounded by fire. While someone had managed to open a window and Willig used a handkerchief to protect her from the smoke, several women passed out from the fumes. At some point, a man named Paul Dearing jumped as he panicked in the aftermath of the fire. Willig was so sure that her time on Earth was over that she took the rings off her fingers and threw them out of the window. Fortunately, her fears were groundless because firemen arrived on the scene and rescued all the survivors. Pall later admitted that she had no idea what happened 23 floors up until she was out of the building and saw the tail of a B-25 bomber sticking out of the building. It appeared as if the worst was over and it was; except for Betty Lou Oliver. A Sudden Crash The rescuers had placed Betty on a stretcher and put her in an elevator on the 79th floor. Unfortunately, they didn’t know that the cables on the elevator had been weakened in the crash. As soon as they placed Betty on the elevator, the cables snapped, and Betty started to hurtle down towards the bottom of the elevator shaft. Her entire life must surely have passed before her eyes as the elevator rocketed towards the ground. In a few seconds, she would be dead at just 20 years of age; with no opportunity to achieve any of her goals in life nor would she see her husband again. Remarkably, Betty survived her second ordeal of the day with an extraordinary amount of luck by all accounts. The elevator plunged a total of 75 stories, approximately 1,000 feet, so in reality, Betty shouldn’t have survived. As it transpired, the thousand feet of elevator cable had broken away and fallen to the bottom of the shaft before Betty landed. By the time she landed, the cable was there to provide a softer landing surface. The rapid compression of air also added to the cushion. Although there are more fun ways to end up in the Guinness Book of Records, Betty’s name was added for the unlikely feat of longest survived elevator fall; a record she still holds today. It was an incredible escape but what became of Betty Lou Oliver? A United States military plane crashes into the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945, killing 14 people. The freak accident was caused by heavy fog. The B-25 Mitchell bomber, with two pilots and one passenger aboard, was flying from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to LaGuardia Airport in New York City. As it came into the metropolitan area on that Saturday morning, the fog was particularly thick. Air-traffic controllers instructed the plane to fly to Newark Airport instead. This new flight plan took the plane over Manhattan; the crew was specifically warned that the Empire State Building, the tallest building in the city at the time, was not visible. The bomber was flying relatively slowly and quite low, seeking better visibility, when it came upon the Chrysler Building in midtown. It swerved to avoid the building but the move sent it straight into the north side of the Empire State Building, near the 79th floor. Upon impact, the plane’s fuel exploded, filling the interior of the building with flames all the way down to the 75th floor and sending flames out of the hole the plane had ripped open in the building’s side. One engine from the plane went straight through the building and landed in a penthouse apartment across the street. Other plane parts ended up embedded in and on top of nearby buildings. The other engine snapped an elevator cable while at least one woman was riding in the elevator car. The emergency auto brake saved the woman from crashing to the bottom, but the engine fell down the shaft and landed on top of it. Quick-thinking rescuers pulled the woman from the elevator, saving her life. Since it was a Saturday, fewer workers than normal were in the building. Only 11 people in the building were killed, some suffering burns from the fiery fuel and others after being thrown out of the building. All 11 victims were workers from War Relief Services department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, into the offices of which the plane had crashed. The three people on the plane were also killed. An 18 foot by 20 foot hole was left in the side of the Empire State Building. Though its structural integrity was not affected, the crash did cause nearly $1 million in damages, about $10.5 million in today’s money. On the morning of July 28, 1945, Lt. Colonel William Smith was trying to reach Newark Airport. Instead, he crashed into the Empire State Building and set it ablaze. The act wasn’t sabotage, write Meyers and Young. Rather, it was the result of bad weather. Smith, who piloted a B-25 Bomber, had been tasked with a routine personal transfer from a military base in Bedford, Massachusetts, to pick up his commanding officer at Newark. That morning thick fog had settled on the city. Ground crews advised Smith that, with zero visibility, attempting to land was a bad idea. In the fog, he found himself off course and flying over the city, Meyers and Young explain. Smith managed to swerve around the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center, and what’s known today as the Helmsley Building. At 9:40am, the bomber smashed into the 78th, 79th and 80th floors of the Empire State Building. It was a Saturday, so most people had not come in to work. Still, 14 people, including three plane crewmembers and eight employees of the Catholic War Relief Office, died in the impact. The building’s elevator operator, Betty Lou Oliver, miraculously survived a 79-foot elevator fall (for which she holds a Guinness World Record). The crash also caused a fire and tore an 18 by 20 foot hole in the north wall of the building, according to a New York Times report the next day. One engine even crashed through the building and hit a penthouse on the other side. A survivor likened the impact to an earthquake — and the crash burns bright in survivors’ memories, even if it’s been widely forgotten today. The Empire State Building is a 102-story[c] Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. It was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the state of New York. The building has a roof height of 1,250 feet (380 m) and stands a total of 1,454 feet (443.2 m) tall, including its antenna. The Empire State Building stood as the world's tallest building until the construction of the World Trade Center in 1970; following its collapse in 2001, the Empire State Building was again the city's tallest skyscraper until 2012. As of 2020, the building is the seventh-tallest building in New York City, the ninth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States, the 49th-tallest in the world, and the sixth-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas. The site of the Empire State Building, in Midtown South on the west side of Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets, was developed in 1893 as the Waldorf–Astoria Hotel. In 1929, Empire State Inc. acquired the site and devised plans for a skyscraper there. The design for the Empire State Building was changed fifteen times until it was ensured to be the world's tallest building. Construction started on March 17, 1930, and the building opened thirteen and a half months afterward on May 1, 1931. Despite favorable publicity related to the building's construction, because of the Great Depression and World War II, its owners did not make a profit until the early 1950s. The building's Art Deco architecture, height, and observation decks have made it a popular attraction. Around four million tourists from around the world annually visit the building's 86th and 102nd floor observatories; an additional indoor observatory on the 80th floor opened in 2019. The Empire State Building is an American cultural icon: it has been featured in more than 250 TV shows and movies since the film King Kong was released in 1933. The building's size has also become a global standard of reference for the height and length of other structures. A symbol of New York City, the building has been named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It was ranked first on the American Institute of Architects' List of America's Favorite Architecture in 2007. Additionally, the Empire State Building and its ground-floor interior were designated city landmarks by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1980, and were added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. Contents 1 Site 2 History 2.1 Planning process 2.2 Construction 2.3 Opening and early years 2.4 Profitability 2.5 Loss of "tallest building" title 2.6 1980s and 1990s 2.7 21st century 3 Design 3.1 Form 3.2 Facade 3.3 Structural features 3.4 Interior 4 Height records 5 Notable tenants 6 Incidents 6.1 1945 plane crash 6.2 2000 elevator plunge 6.3 Suicide attempts 6.4 Shootings 7 Impact 7.1 Status as an icon 7.2 In popular culture 7.3 Empire State Building Run-Up 8 See also 9 References 9.1 Notes 9.2 Citations 9.3 Sources 9.4 Further reading 10 External links Site The Empire State Building is located on the west side of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, between 33rd Street to the south and 34th Street to the north.[14] Tenants enter the building through the Art Deco lobby located at 350 Fifth Avenue. Visitors to the observatories use an entrance at 20 West 34th Street; prior to August 2018, visitors entered through the Fifth Avenue lobby.[1] Although physically located in South Midtown,[15] a mixed residential and commercial area,[16] the building is so large that it was assigned its own ZIP Code, 10118;[17][18] as of 2012, it is one of 43 buildings in New York City that have their own ZIP codes.[19][b] The areas surrounding the Empire State Building are home to other major points of interest, including Macy's at Herald Square on Sixth Avenue and 34th Street,[22] Koreatown on 32nd Street between Madison and Sixth Avenues,[22][23] Penn Station and Madison Square Garden on Seventh Avenue between 32nd and 34th Streets,[22] and the Flower District on 28th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.[24] The nearest New York City Subway stations are 34th Street–Penn Station at Seventh Avenue, two blocks west; 34th Street–Herald Square, one block west; and 33rd Street at Park Avenue, two blocks east.[d] There is also a PATH station at 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue.[25] To the east of the Empire State Building is Murray Hill,[25] a neighborhood with a mix of residential, commercial, and entertainment activity.[26] The block directly to the northeast contains the B. Altman and Company Building, which houses the City University of New York's Graduate Center, while the Demarest Building is directly across Fifth Avenue to the east.[27] History The Waldorf–Astoria in 1901 The site was previously owned by John Jacob Astor of the prominent Astor family, who had owned the site since the mid-1820s.[28][29] In 1893, John Jacob Astor Sr.'s grandson William Waldorf Astor opened the Waldorf Hotel on the site;[30][31] four years later, his cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, opened the 16-story Astoria Hotel on an adjacent site.[32][30][33] The two portions of the Waldorf–Astoria hotel had 1,300 bedrooms, making it the largest hotel in the world at the time.[34] After the death of its founding proprietor, George Boldt, in early 1918, the hotel lease was purchased by Thomas Coleman du Pont.[35][36] By the 1920s, the old Waldorf–Astoria was becoming dated and the elegant social life of New York had moved much farther north than 34th Street.[37][38][39] The Astor family decided to build a replacement hotel further uptown,[30] and sold the hotel to Bethlehem Engineering Corporation in 1928 for $14–16 million.[37] The hotel closed shortly thereafter, on May 3, 1929.[32] Planning process Early plans Bethlehem Engineering Corporation originally intended to build a 25-story office building on the Waldorf–Astoria site. The company's president, Floyd De L. Brown, paid $100,000 of the $1 million down payment required to start construction on the building, with the promise that the difference would be paid later.[30] Brown borrowed $900,000 from a bank, but then defaulted on the loan.[40][41] After Brown was unable to secure additional funding,[38] the land was resold to Empire State Inc., a group of wealthy investors that included Louis G. Kaufman, Ellis P. Earle, John J. Raskob, Coleman du Pont, and Pierre S. du Pont.[40][41][42] The name came from the state nickname for New York.[43] Alfred E. Smith, a former Governor of New York and U.S. presidential candidate whose 1928 campaign had been managed by Raskob,[44] was appointed head of the company.[38][40][41] The group also purchased nearby land so they would have the 2 acres (1 ha) needed for the base, with the combined plot measuring 425 feet (130 m) wide by 200 feet (61 m) long.[45] The Empire State Inc. consortium was announced to the public in August 1929.[46][47][45] Concurrently, Smith announced the construction of an 80-story building on the site, to be taller than any other buildings in existence.[45][48] Empire State Inc. contracted William F. Lamb, of architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, to create the building design.[2][49] Lamb produced the building drawings in just two weeks using the firm's earlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina as the basis.[43] Concurrently, Lamb's partner Richmond Shreve created "bug diagrams" of the project requirements.[50] The 1916 Zoning Act forced Lamb to design a structure that incorporated setbacks resulting in the lower floors being larger than the upper floors.[e] Consequently, the building was designed from the top down,[51] giving it a "pencil"-like shape.[52] The plans were devised within a budget of $50 million and a stipulation that the building be ready for occupancy within 18 months of the start of construction.[38] Design changes Architect sketch of heights and allowed building areas The original plan of the building was 50 stories,[53] but was later increased to 60 and then 80 stories.[45] Height restrictions were placed on nearby buildings[45] to ensure that the top fifty floors of the planned 80-story, 1,000-foot-tall (300 m) building[54][55] would have unobstructed views of the city.[45] The New York Times lauded the site's proximity to mass transit, with the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit's 34th Street station and the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad's 33rd Street terminal one block away, as well as Penn Station two blocks away and the Grand Central Terminal nine blocks away at its closest. It also praised the 3,000,000 square feet (280,000 m2) of proposed floor space near "one of the busiest sections in the world".[45] While plans for the Empire State Building were being finalized, an intense competition in New York for the title of "world's tallest building" was underway. 40 Wall Street (then the Bank of Manhattan Building) and the Chrysler Building in Manhattan both vied for this distinction and were already under construction when work began on the Empire State Building.[54] The "Race into the Sky", as popular media called it at the time, was representative of the country's optimism in the 1920s, fueled by the building boom in major cities.[56] The race was defined by at least five other proposals, although only the Empire State Building would survive the Wall Street Crash of 1929.[38][f] The 40 Wall Street tower was revised, in April 1929, from 840 feet (260 m) to 925 feet (282 m) making it the world's tallest.[58] The Chrysler Building added its 185-foot (56 m) steel tip to its roof in October 1929, thus bringing it to a height of 1,046 feet (319 m) and greatly exceeding the height of 40 Wall Street.[54] The Chrysler Building's developer, Walter Chrysler, realized that his tower's height would exceed the Empire State Building's as well, having instructed his architect, William Van Alen, to change the Chrysler's original roof from a stubby Romanesque dome to a narrow steel spire.[58] Raskob, wishing to have the Empire State Building be the world's tallest, reviewed the plans and had five floors added as well as a spire; however, the new floors would need to be set back because of projected wind pressure on the extension.[59] On November 18, 1929, Smith acquired a lot at 27–31 West 33rd Street, adding 75 feet (23 m) to the width of the proposed office building's site.[60][61] Two days later, Smith announced the updated plans for the skyscraper. The plans included an observation deck on the 86th-floor roof at a height of 1,050 feet (320 m), higher than the Chrysler's 71st-floor observation deck.[59][62] The 1,050-foot Empire State Building would only be 4 feet (1.2 m) taller than the Chrysler Building,[59][63][64] and Raskob was afraid that Chrysler might try to "pull a trick like hiding a rod in the spire and then sticking it up at the last minute."[53][65][63] The plans were revised one last time in December 1929, to include a 16-story, 200-foot (61 m) metal "crown" and an additional 222-foot (68 m) mooring mast intended for dirigibles. The roof height was now 1,250 feet (380 m), making it the tallest building in the world by far, even without the antenna.[66][53][67] The addition of the dirigible station meant that another floor, the now-enclosed 86th floor, would have to be built below the crown;[67] however, unlike the Chrysler's spire, the Empire State's mast would serve a practical purpose.[65] A revised plan was announced to the public in late December 1929, just before the start of construction.[38][39] The final plan was sketched within two hours, the night before the plan was supposed to be presented to the site's owners in January 1930.[38] The New York Times reported that the spire was facing some "technical problems", but they were "no greater than might be expected under such a novel plan."[68] By this time the blueprints for the building had gone through up to fifteen versions before they were approved.[53][69][70] Lamb described the other specifications he was given for the final, approved plan: The program was short enough—a fixed budget, no space more than 28 feet from window to corridor, as many stories of such space as possible, an exterior of limestone, and completion date of [May 1], 1931, which meant a year and six months from the beginning of sketches.[71][53] The contractors were Starrett Brothers and Eken, Paul and William A. Starrett and Andrew J. Eken,[72] who would later construct other New York City buildings such as Stuyvesant Town, Starrett City and Trump Tower.[73] The project was financed primarily by Raskob and Pierre du Pont,[74] while James Farley's General Builders Supply Corporation supplied the building materials.[2] John W. Bowser was the construction superintendent of the project,[75] and the structural engineer of the building was Homer G. Balcom.[49][76] The tight completion schedule necessitated the commencement of construction even though the design had yet to be finalized.[77] Construction Hotel demolition Demolition of the old Waldorf–Astoria began on October 1, 1929.[78] Stripping the building down was an arduous process, as the hotel had been constructed using more rigid material than earlier buildings had been. Furthermore, the old hotel's granite, wood chips, and "'precious' metals such as lead, brass, and zinc" were not in high demand resulting in issues with disposal.[79] Most of the wood was deposited into a woodpile on nearby 30th Street or was burned in a swamp elsewhere. Much of the other materials that made up the old hotel, including the granite and bronze, were dumped into the Atlantic Ocean near Sandy Hook, New Jersey.[80][81] By the time the hotel's demolition started, Raskob had secured the required funding for the construction of the building.[82] The plan was to start construction later that year but, on October 24, the New York Stock Exchange experienced the major and sudden Wall Street Crash, marking the beginning of the decade-long Great Depression. Despite the economic downturn, Raskob refused to cancel the project because of the progress that had been made up to that point.[46] Neither Raskob, who had ceased speculation in the stock market the previous year, nor Smith, who had no stock investments, suffered financially in the crash.[82] However, most of the investors were affected and as a result, in December 1929, Empire State Inc. obtained a $27.5 million loan from Metropolitan Life Insurance Company so construction could begin.[83] The stock market crash resulted in no demand in new office space, Raskob and Smith nonetheless started construction,[84] as canceling the project would have resulted in greater losses for the investors.[46] Steel structure A worker bolts beams during construction; the Chrysler Building can be seen in the background. A structural steel contract was awarded on January 12, 1930,[85] with excavation of the site beginning ten days later on January 22,[86] before the old hotel had been completely demolished.[87] Two twelve-hour shifts, consisting of 300 men each, worked continuously to dig the 55-foot (17 m) foundation.[86] Small pier holes were sunk into the ground to house the concrete footings that would support the steelwork.[88] Excavation was nearly complete by early March,[89] and construction on the building itself started on March 17,[90][2] with the builders placing the first steel columns on the completed footings before the rest of the footings had been finished.[91] Around this time, Lamb held a press conference on the building plans. He described the reflective steel panels parallel to the windows, the large-block Indiana Limestone facade that was slightly more expensive than smaller bricks, and the building's vertical lines.[66] Four colossal columns, intended for installation in the center of the building site, were delivered; they would support a combined 10,000,000 pounds (4,500,000 kg) when the building was finished.[92] The structural steel was pre-ordered and pre-fabricated in anticipation of a revision to the city's building code that would have allowed the Empire State Building's structural steel to carry 18,000 pounds per square inch (120,000 kPa), up from 16,000 pounds per square inch (110,000 kPa), thus reducing the amount of steel needed for the building. Although the 18,000-psi regulation had been safely enacted in other cities, Mayor Jimmy Walker did not sign the new codes into law until March 26, 1930, just before construction was due to commence.[90][93] The first steel framework was installed on April 1, 1930.[94] From there, construction proceeded at a rapid pace; during one stretch of 10 working days, the builders erected fourteen floors.[95][2] This was made possible through precise coordination of the building's planning, as well as the mass production of common materials such as windows and spandrels.[96] On one occasion, when a supplier could not provide timely delivery of dark Hauteville marble, Starrett switched to using Rose Famosa marble from a German quarry that was purchased specifically to provide the project with sufficient marble.[88] The scale of the project was massive, with trucks carrying "16,000 partition tiles, 5,000 bags of cement, 450 cubic yards [340 m3] of sand and 300 bags of lime" arriving at the construction site every day.[97] There were also cafes and concession stands on five of the incomplete floors so workers did not have to descend to the ground level to eat lunch.[3][98] Temporary water taps were also built so workers did not waste time buying water bottles from the ground level.[3][99] Additionally, carts running on a small railway system transported materials from the basement storage[3] to elevators that brought the carts to the desired floors where they would then be distributed throughout that level using another set of tracks.[97][100][98] The 57,480 short tons (51,320 long tons) of steel ordered for the project was the largest-ever single order of steel at the time, comprising more steel than was ordered for the Chrysler Building and 40 Wall Street combined.[101][102] According to historian John Tauranac, building materials were sourced from numerous, and distant, sources with "limestone from Indiana, steel girders from Pittsburgh, cement and mortar from upper New York State, marble from Italy, France, and England, wood from northern and Pacific Coast forests, [and] hardware from New England."[95] The facade, too, used a variety of material, most prominently Indiana limestone but also Swedish black granite, terracotta, and brick.[103] By June 20, the skyscraper's supporting steel structure had risen to the 26th floor, and by July 27, half of the steel structure had been completed.[97] Starrett Bros. and Eken endeavored to build one floor a day in order to speed up construction, a goal that they almost reached with their pace of ​4 1⁄2 stories per week;[104][105] prior to this, the fastest pace of construction for a building of similar height had been ​3 1⁄2 stories per week.[104] While construction progressed, the final designs for the floors were being designed from the ground up (as opposed to the general design, which had been from the roof down). Some of the levels were still undergoing final approval, with several orders placed within an hour of a plan being finalized.[104] On September 10, as steelwork was nearing completion, Smith laid the building's cornerstone during a ceremony attended by thousands. The stone contained a box with contemporary artifacts including the previous day's New York Times, a U.S. currency set containing all denominations of notes and coins minted in 1930, a history of the site and building, and photographs of the people involved in construction.[106][107] The steel structure was topped out at 1,048 feet (319 m) on September 19, twelve days ahead of schedule and 23 weeks after the start of construction.[108] Workers raised a flag atop the 86th floor to signify this milestone.[104][109] Completion and scale During construction in October 1930; the USS Los Angeles, ZMC-2 and a J-class blimp seen overhead Afterward, work on the building's interior and crowning mast commenced.[109] The mooring mast topped out on November 21, two months after the steelwork had been completed.[107][110] Meanwhile, work on the walls and interior was progressing at a quick pace, with exterior walls built up to the 75th floor by the time steelwork had been built to the 95th floor.[111] The majority of the facade was already finished by the middle of November.[3] Because of the building's height, it was deemed infeasible to have many elevators or large elevator cabins, so the builders contracted with the Otis Elevator Company to make 66 cars that could speed at 1,200 feet per minute (366 m/min), which represented the largest-ever elevator order at the time.[112] In addition to the time constraint builders had, there were also space limitations because construction materials had to be delivered quickly, and trucks needed to drop off these materials without congesting traffic. This was solved by creating a temporary driveway for the trucks between 33rd and 34th Streets, and then storing the materials in the building's first floor and basements. Concrete mixers, brick hoppers, and stone hoists inside the building ensured that materials would be able to ascend quickly and without endangering or inconveniencing the public.[111] At one point, over 200 trucks made material deliveries at the building site every day.[3] A series of relay and erection derricks, placed on platforms erected near the building, lifted the steel from the trucks below and installed the beams at the appropriate locations.[113] The Empire State Building was structurally completed on April 11, 1931, twelve days ahead of schedule and 410 days after construction commenced.[3] Al Smith shot the final rivet, which was made of solid gold.[114] A photograph of a cable worker, taken by Lewis Hine as part of his project to document the Empire State Building's construction Photograph of a cable worker taken by Lewis Hine The project involved more than 3,500 workers at its peak,[2] including 3,439 on a single day, August 14, 1930.[115] Many of the workers were Irish and Italian immigrants,[116] with a sizable minority of Mohawk ironworkers from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal.[116][117][118] According to official accounts, five workers died during the construction,[119][120] although the New York Daily News gave reports of 14 deaths[3] and a headline in the socialist magazine The New Masses spread unfounded rumors of up to 42 deaths.[121][120] The Empire State Building cost $40,948,900 to build, including demolition of the Waldorf–Astoria (equivalent to $564,491,900 in 2019). This was lower than the $60 million budgeted for construction.[5] Lewis Hine captured many photographs of the construction, documenting not only the work itself but also providing insight into the daily life of workers in that era.[86][122][123] Hine's images were used extensively by the media to publish daily press releases.[124] According to the writer Jim Rasenberger, Hine "climbed out onto the steel with the ironworkers and dangled from a derrick cable hundreds of feet above the city to capture, as no one ever had before (or has since), the dizzy work of building skyscrapers". In Rasenberger's words, Hine turned what might have been an assignment of "corporate flak" into "exhilarating art".[125] These images were later organized into their own collection.[126] Onlookers were enraptured by the sheer height at which the steelworkers operated. New York magazine wrote of the steelworkers: "Like little spiders they toiled, spinning a fabric of steel against the sky".[113] Opening and early years The Empire State Building in 1932; the building had no antenna for the next 21 years, until 1953 The Empire State Building officially opened on May 1, 1931, forty-five days ahead of its projected opening date, and eighteen months from the start of construction.[127][2][128] The opening was marked with an event featuring United States President Herbert Hoover, who turned on the building's lights with the ceremonial button push from Washington, D.C..[129][130][4] Over 350 guests attended the opening ceremony, and following luncheon, at the 86th floor including Jimmy Walker, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Al Smith.[4] An account from that day stated that the view from the luncheon was obscured by a fog, with other landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty being "lost in the mist" enveloping New York City.[131] The Empire State Building officially opened the next day.[131][75] Advertisements for the building's observatories were placed in local newspapers, while nearby hotels also capitalized on the events by releasing advertisements that lauded their proximity to the newly opened building.[132] According to The New York Times, builders and real estate speculators predicted that the 1,250-foot-tall (380 m) Empire State Building would be the world's tallest building "for many years", thus ending the great New York City skyscraper rivalry. At the time, most engineers agreed that it would be difficult to build a building taller than 1,200 feet (370 m), even with the hardy Manhattan bedrock as a foundation.[133] Technically, it was believed possible to build a tower of up to 2,000 feet (610 m), but it was deemed uneconomical to do so, especially during the Great Depression.[100][134] As the tallest building in the world, at that time, and the first one to exceed 100 floors, the Empire State Building became an icon of the city and, ultimately, of the nation.[135] In 1932, the Fifth Avenue Association gave the building its 1931 "gold medal" for architectural excellence, signifying that the Empire State had been the best-designed building on Fifth Avenue to open in 1931.[136] A year later, on March 2, 1933, the movie King Kong was released. The movie, which depicted a large stop motion ape named Kong climbing the Empire State Building, made the still-new building into a cinematic icon.[137][138] Tenants and tourism The Empire State Building's opening coincided with the Great Depression in the United States, and as a result much of its office space was vacant from its opening.[126] In the first year, only 23% of the available space was rented,[139][140] as compared to the early 1920s, where the average building would have occupancy of 52% upon opening and 90% rented within five years.[141] The lack of renters led New Yorkers to deride the building as the "Empty State Building.[126][142] or "Smith's Folly".[143] The earliest tenants in the Empire State Building were large companies, banks, and garment industries.[143] Jack Brod, one of the building's longest resident tenants,[144][145] co-established the Empire Diamond Corporation with his father in the building in mid-1931[146] and rented space in the building until he died in 2008.[146] Brod recalled that there were only about 20 tenants at the time of opening, including him,[145] and that Al Smith was the only real tenant in the space above his seventh-floor offices.[144] Generally, during the early 1930s, it was rare for more than a single office space to be rented in the building, despite Smith's and Raskob's aggressive marketing efforts in the newspapers and to anyone they knew.[147] The building's lights were continuously left on, even in the unrented spaces, to give the impression of occupancy. This was exacerbated by competition from Rockefeller Center[139] as well as from buildings on 42nd Street, which, when combined with the Empire State Building, resulted in surplus of office space in a slow market during the 1930s.[148] Aggressive marketing efforts served to reinforce the Empire State Building's status as the world's tallest.[149] The observatory was advertised in local newspapers as well as on railroad tickets.[150] The building became a popular tourist attraction, with one million people each paying one dollar to ride elevators to the observation decks in 1931.[151] In its first year of operation, the observation deck made approximately $2 million in revenue, as much as its owners made in rent that year.[139][126] By 1936, the observation deck was crowded on a daily basis, with food and drink available for purchase at the top,[152] and by 1944 the building had received its five-millionth visitor.[153] In 1931, NBC took up tenancy, leasing space on the 85th floor for radio broadcasts.[154][155] From the outset the building was in debt, losing $1 million per year by 1935. Real estate developer Seymour Durst recalled that the building was so underused in 1936 that there was no elevator service above the 45th floor, as the building above the 41st floor was empty except for the NBC offices and the Raskob/Du Pont offices on the 81st floor.[156] Other events Per the original plans, the Empire State Building's spire was intended to be an airship docking station. Raskob and Smith had proposed dirigible ticketing offices and passenger waiting rooms on the 86th floor, while the airships themselves would be tied to the spire at the equivalent of the building's 106th floor.[157][158] An elevator would ferry passengers from the 86th to the 101st floor[g] after they had checked in on the 86th floor,[160] after which passengers would have climbed steep ladders to board the airship.[157] The idea, however, was impractical and dangerous due to powerful updrafts caused by the building itself,[161] the wind currents across Manhattan,[157] and the spires of nearby skyscrapers.[162] Furthermore, even if the airship were to successfully navigate all these obstacles, its crew would have to jettison some ballast by releasing water onto the streets below in order to maintain stability, and then tie the craft's nose to the spire with no mooring lines securing the tail end of the craft.[13][157][162] On September 15, 1931, a small commercial United States Navy airship circled 25 times in 45-mile-per-hour (72 km/h) winds.[163] The airship then attempted to dock at the mast, but its ballast spilled and the craft was rocked by unpredictable eddies.[164][165] The near-disaster scuttled plans to turn the building's spire into an airship terminal, although one blimp did manage to make a single newspaper delivery afterward.[38][157] On July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building, between the 79th and 80th floors.[166] One engine completely penetrated the building and landed in a neighboring block, while the other engine and part of the landing gear plummeted down an elevator shaft. Fourteen people were killed in the incident,[167][70] but the building escaped severe damage and was reopened two days later.[167][168] Profitability The Empire State Building only started becoming profitable in the 1950s, when it was finally able to break even for the first time.[126][169] At the time, mass transit options in the building's vicinity were limited compared to the present day. Despite this challenge, the Empire State Building began to attract renters due to its reputation.[170] A 222-foot (68 m) radio antenna was erected on top of the towers starting in 1950,[171] allowing the area's television stations to be broadcast from the building.[172] However, despite the turnaround in the building's fortunes, Raskob listed it for sale in 1951,[173] with a minimum asking price of $50 million.[174] The property was purchased by business partners Roger L. Stevens, Henry Crown, Alfred R. Glancy and Ben Tobin.[175][176][177] The sale was brokered by the Charles F. Noyes Company, a prominent real estate firm in upper Manhattan,[174] for $51 million, the highest price paid for a single structure at the time.[178] By this time, the Empire State had been fully leased for several years with a waiting list of parties looking to lease space in the building, according to the Cortland Standard.[179] That same year, six news companies formed a partnership to pay a combined annual fee of $600,000 to use the building's antenna,[174] which was completed in 1953.[172] Crown bought out his partners' ownership stakes in 1954, becoming the sole owner.[180] The following year, the American Society of Civil Engineers named the building one of the "Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders".[181][182] In 1961, Lawrence A. Wien signed a contract to purchase the Empire State Building for $65 million, with Harry B. Helmsley acting as partners in the building's operating lease.[175][183] This became the new highest price for a single structure.[183] Over 3,000 people paid $10,000 for one share each in a company called Empire State Building Associates. The company in turn subleased the building to another company headed by Helmsley and Wien, raising $33 million of the funds needed to pay the purchase price.[175][183] In a separate transaction,[183] the land underneath the building was sold to Prudential Insurance for $29 million.[175][184] Helmsley, Wien, and Peter Malkin quickly started a program of minor improvement projects, including the first-ever full-building facade refurbishment and window-washing in 1962,[185][186] the installation of new flood lights on the 72nd floor in 1964,[187][188] and replacement of the manually operated elevators with automatic units in 1966.[189] The little-used western end of the second floor was used as a storage space until 1964, at which point it received escalators to the first floor as part of its conversion into a highly sought retail area.[190][191] Loss of "tallest building" title The World Trade Center as seen from the air The World Trade Center's Twin Towers surpassed the Empire State Building in height by 1970.[192][193] In 1961, the same year that Helmsley, Wien, and Malkin had purchased the Empire State Building, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey formally backed plans for a new World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.[194] The plan originally included 66-story twin towers with column-free open spaces. The Empire State's owners and real estate speculators were worried that the twin towers' 7.6 million square feet (710,000 m2) of office space would create a glut of rentable space in Manhattan as well as take away the Empire State Building's profits from lessees.[195] A revision in the World Trade Center's plan brought the twin towers to 1,370 feet (420 m) each or 110 stories, taller than the Empire State.[196] Opponents of the new project included prominent real-estate developer Robert Tishman, as well as Wien's Committee for a Reasonable World Trade Center.[196] In response to Wien's opposition, Port Authority executive director Austin J. Tobin said that Wien was only opposing the project because it would overshadow his Empire State Building as the world's tallest building.[197] The World Trade Center's twin towers started construction in 1966.[198] The following year, the Ostankino Tower succeeded the Empire State Building as the tallest freestanding structure in the world.[199] In 1970, the Empire State surrendered its position as the world's tallest building,[200] when the World Trade Center's still-under-construction North Tower surpassed it, on October 19;[192][193] the North Tower was topped out, on December 23, 1970.[193][201] In December 1975, the observation deck was opened on the 110th floor of the Twin Towers, significantly higher than the 86th floor observatory on the Empire State Building.[70] The latter was also losing revenue during this period, particularly as a number of broadcast stations had moved to the World Trade Center in 1971; although the Port Authority continued to pay the broadcasting leases for the Empire State until 1984.[202] The Empire State Building was still seen as prestigious, having seen its forty-millionth visitor in March 1971.[203] 1980s and 1990s By 1980, there were nearly two million annual visitors,[151] although a building official had previously estimated between 1.5 million and 1.75 million annual visitors.[204] The building received its own ZIP code in May 1980 in a roll out of 63 new postal codes in Manhattan. At the time, its tenants collectively received 35,000 pieces of mail daily.[21] The Empire State Building celebrated its 50th anniversary on May 1, 1981, with a much-publicized, but poorly received, laser light show,[205] as well as an "Empire State Building Week" that ran through to May 8.[206][207] The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to make the lobby a city landmark on May 19, 1981, citing the historic nature of the first and second floors, as well as "the fixtures and interior components" of the upper floors.[208] The building became a National Historic Landmark in 1986[10] in close alignment to the New York City Landmarks report.[209] The Empire State Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places the following year due to its architectural significance.[210] Capital improvements were made to the Empire State Building during the early to mid-1990s at a cost of $55 million.[211] These improvements entailed replacing alarm systems, elevators, windows, and air conditioning; making the observation deck compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA); and refurbishing the limestone facade.[212] The observatory renovation was added after disability rights groups and the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the building in 1992, in what was the first lawsuit filed by an organization under the new law.[213] A settlement was reached in 1994, in which the Empire State Building Associates agreed to add ADA-compliant elements, such as new elevators, ramps, and automatic doors, during its ongoing renovation.[214] Prudential sold the land under the building in 1991 for $42 million to a buyer representing hotelier Hideki Yokoi [ja], who was imprisoned at the time in connection with the deadly Hotel New Japan Fire [ja] at the Hotel New Japan [ja] in Tokyo.[215] In 1994, Donald Trump entered into a joint-venture agreement with Yokoi, with a shared goal of breaking the Empire State Building's lease on the land in an effort to gain total ownership of the building so that, if successful, the two could reap the potential profits of merging the ownership of the building with the land beneath it.[216] Having secured a half-ownership of the land, Trump devised plans to take ownership of the building itself so he could renovate it, even though Helmsley and Malkin had already started their refurbishment project.[211] He sued Empire State Building Associates in February 1995, claiming that the latter had caused the building to become a "high-rise slum"[175] and a "second-rate, rodent-infested" office tower.[217] Trump had intended to have Empire State Building Associates evicted for violating the terms of their lease,[217] but was denied.[218] This led to Helmsley's companies countersuing Trump in May.[219] This sparked a series of lawsuits and countersuits that lasted several years,[175] partly arising from Trump's desire to obtain the building's master lease by taking it from Empire State Building Associates.[212] Upon Harry Helmsley's death in 1997, the Malkins sued Helmsley's widow, Leona Helmsley, for control of the building.[220] 21st century 2000s The building, tallest in New York, from 2001 to 2012, seen here in 2010 Following the destruction of the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York City, but was only the second-tallest building in the Americas after the Sears (later Willis) Tower in Chicago.[199][221][222] As a result of the attacks, transmissions from nearly all of the city's commercial television and FM radio stations were again broadcast from the Empire State Building.[223] The attacks also led to an increase in security due to persistent terror threats against New York City landmarks.[224] In 2002, Trump and Yokoi sold their land claim to the Empire State Building Associates, now headed by Malkin, in a $57.5 million sale.[175][225] This action merged the building's title and lease for the first time in half a century.[225] Despite the lingering threat posed by the 9/11 attacks, the Empire State Building remained popular with 3.5 million visitors to the observatories in 2004, compared to about 2.8 million in 2003.[226] Even though she maintained her ownership stake in the building until the post-consolidation IPO in October 2013, Leona Helmsley handed over day-to-day operations of the building in 2006 to Peter Malkin's company.[175][227] In 2008, the building was temporarily "stolen" by the New York Daily News to show how easy it was to transfer the deed on a property, since city clerks were not required to validate the submitted information, as well as to help demonstrate how fraudulent deeds could be used to obtain large mortgages and then have individuals disappear with the money. The paperwork submitted to the city included the names of Fay Wray, the famous star of King Kong, and Willie Sutton, a notorious New York bank robber. The newspaper then transferred the deed back over to the legitimate owners, who at that time were Empire State Land Associates.[228] 2010s The current One World Trade Center (seen in the distance under construction) surpassed the Empire State Building's height on April 30, 2012 Starting in 2009, the building's public areas received a $550 million renovation, with improvements to the air conditioning and waterproofing, renovations to the observation deck and main lobby,[229] and relocation of the gift shop to the 80th floor.[230][231] About $120 million was spent on improving the energy efficiency of the building, with the goal of reducing energy emissions by 38% within five years.[231][232] For example, all of the windows were refurbished onsite into film-coated "superwindows" which block heat but pass light.[232][233][234] Air conditioning operating costs on hot days were reduced, saving $17 million of the project's capital cost immediately and partially funding some of the other retrofits.[233] The Empire State Building won the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold for Existing Buildings rating in September 2011, as well as the World Federation of Great Towers' Excellence in Environment Award for 2010.[234] For the LEED Gold certification, the building's energy reduction was considered, as was a large purchase of carbon offsets. Other factors included low-flow bathroom fixtures, green cleaning supplies, and use of recycled paper products.[235] On April 30, 2012, One World Trade Center topped out, taking the Empire State Building's record of tallest in the city.[236] By 2014, the building was owned by the Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT), with Anthony Malkin as chairman, CEO, and president.[237] The ESRT was a public company, having begun trading publicly on the New York Stock Exchange the previous year.[238] In August 2016, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) was issued new fully diluted shares equivalent to 9.9% of the trust; this investment gave them partial ownership of the entirety of the ESRT's portfolio, and as a result, partial ownership of the Empire State Building.[239] The trust's president John Kessler called it an "endorsement of the company's irreplaceable assets".[240] The investment has been described by the real-estate magazine The Real Deal as "an unusual move for a sovereign wealth fund", as these funds typically buy direct stakes in buildings rather than real estate companies.[241] Other foreign entities that have a stake in the ESRT include investors from Norway, Japan, and Australia.[240] A renovation of the Empire State Building was commenced in the 2010s to further improve energy efficiency, public areas, and amenities.[1] In August 2018, to improve the flow of visitor traffic, the main visitor's entrance was shifted to 20 West 34th Street as part of a major renovation of the observatory lobby.[242] The new lobby includes several technological features, including large LED panels, digital ticket kiosks in nine languages, and a two-story architectural model of the building surrounded by two metal staircases.[1][242] The first phase of the renovation, completed in 2019, features an updated exterior lighting system and digital hosts.[242] The new lobby also features free Wi-Fi provided for those waiting.[1][243] A 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) exhibit with nine galleries, opened in July 2019.[244][245] The 102nd floor observatory, the third phase of the redesign, re-opened to the public on October 12, 2019.[246][247] That portion of the project included outfitting the space with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and a brand-new glass elevator.[248] The final portion of the renovations to be completed was a new observatory on the 80th floor, which opened on December 2, 2019. In total, the renovation had cost $165 million and taken four years to finish.[249][250] Design A pair of sculpted concrete eagles above the 5th Avenue entrance The Empire State Building is 1,250 ft (381 m) tall to its 102nd floor, or 1,453 feet 8 9⁄16 inches (443.092 m) including its 203-foot (61.9 m) pinnacle.[54] The building has 86 usable stories; the first through 85th floors contain 2.158 million square feet (200,500 m2) of commercial and office space, while the 86th story contains an observatory.[54][251] The remaining 16 stories are part of the Art Deco spire, which is capped by an observatory on the 102nd floor, and does not contain any intermediate floor levels.[54] Atop the 86th story is the 203 ft (61.9 m) pinnacle, much of which is covered by broadcast antennas, and surmounted with a lightning rod.[166] The Empire State Building was the first building to have more than 100 floors.[135] The building has been named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.[252] The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and confirmed by the New York City Board of Estimate.[253] It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.[10][209][254] In 2007, it was first on the AIA's List of America's Favorite Architecture.[255] Form A series of setbacks causes the building to taper with height. The Empire State Building has a symmetrical massing, or shape, because of its large lot and relatively short base. The five-story base occupies the entire lot, while the 81-story tower above it is set back sharply from the base.[38][68][256] There are smaller setbacks on the upper stories, allowing sunlight to illuminate the interiors of the top floors, and positioning these floors away from the noisy streets below.[52][257] The setbacks are located at the 21st, 25th, 30th, 72nd, 81st, and 85th stories.[258] The setbacks were mandated as per the 1916 Zoning Resolution, which was intended to allow sunlight to reach the streets as well.[e] Normally, a building of the Empire State's dimensions would be permitted to build up to 12 stories on the Fifth Avenue side, and up to 17 stories on the 33rd/34th Streets side, before it would have to utilize setbacks.[68] However, with the largest setback being located above the base, the tower stories could contain a uniform shape.[264][265][53] According to architectural writer Robert A. M. Stern, the Empire State Building's form contrasted with the nearly contemporary, similarly designed 500 Fifth Avenue eight blocks north, which had an asymmetrical massing on a smaller lot.[38] Facade The Empire State Building's art deco design is typical of pre–World War II architecture in New York.[253] The facade is clad in Indiana limestone panels sourced from the Empire Mill in Sanders, Indiana,[266] which give the building its signature blonde color.[43] According to official fact sheets, the facade uses 200,000 cubic feet (5,700 m3) of limestone and granite, ten million bricks, and 730 short tons (650 long tons) of aluminum and stainless steel.[267] The building also contains 6,514 windows.[268] Main entrance pavilion on Fifth Avenue The main entrance, composed of three sets of metal doors, is at the center of the Fifth Avenue facade, flanked by molded piers that are topped with eagles. Above the main entrance is a transom, a triple-height transom window with geometric patterns, and the golden letters empire state above the fifth-floor windows.[256][127] There are two entrances each on 33rd and 34th Streets, with modernistic, stainless steel canopies projecting from the entrances on 33rd and 34th Streets there. Above the secondary entrances are triple windows, less elaborate in design than those on Fifth Avenue.[253][256][127] The storefronts on the first floor contain aluminum-framed doors and windows within a black granite cladding.[256][127] The second through fourth stories consist of windows alternating with wide stone piers and narrower stone mullions. The fifth story contains windows alternating with wide and narrow mullions, and is topped by a horizontal stone sill.[256] The facade of the tower stories is split into several vertical bays on each side, with windows projecting slightly from the limestone cladding. The bays are arranged into sets of one, two, or three windows on each floor.[269] The windows in each bay are separated by vertical nickel-chrome steel mullions and connected by horizontal aluminum spandrels on each floor.[258][127] Structural features The riveted steel frame of the building was originally designed to handle all of the building's gravitational stresses and wind loads.[270] The amount of material used in the building's construction resulted in a very stiff structure when compared to other skyscrapers, with a structural stiffness of 42 pounds per square foot (2.0 kPa) versus the Willis Tower's 33 pounds per square foot (1.6 kPa) and the John Hancock Center's 26 pounds per square foot (1.2 kPa).[271] A December 1930 feature in Popular Mechanics estimated that a building with the Empire State's dimensions would still stand even if hit with an impact of 50 short tons (45 long tons).[264] Utilities are grouped in a central shaft.[68] On the 6th through 86th stories, the central shaft is surrounded by a main corridor on all four sides.[53] As per the final specifications of the building, the corridor is surrounded in turn by office space 28 feet (8.5 m) deep, maximizing office space at a time before air conditioning became commonplace.[272][71] Each of the floors has 210 structural columns that pass through it, which provide structural stability, but limits the amount of open space on these floors.[53] However, the relative dearth of stone in the building allows for more space overall, with a 1:200 stone-to-building ratio in the Empire State compared to a 1:50 ratio in similar buildings.[100] Interior One of several elevator lobbies According to official fact sheets, the Empire State Building weighs 365,000 short tons (331,122 t) and has an internal volume of 37 million cubic feet (1,000,000 m3).[267] The interior required 1,172 miles (1,886 km) of elevator cable and 2 million feet (609,600 m) of electrical wires.[273] The Empire State Building has a total floor area of 2,768,591 sq ft (257,211 m2), and each of the floors in the base cover 2 acres (1 ha).[274] This gives the building capacity for 20,000 tenants and 15,000 visitors.[264] The Empire State Building contains 73 elevators.[232] Its original 64 elevators, built by the Otis Elevator Company,[274] are located in a central core and are of varying heights, with the longest of these elevators reaching from the lobby to the 80th floor.[68][275] As originally built, there were four "express" elevators that connected the lobby, 80th floor, and several landings in between; the other 60 "local" elevators connected the landings with the floors above these intermediate landings.[265] Of the 64 total elevators, 58 were for passenger use (comprising the four express elevators and 54 local elevators), and eight were for freight deliveries.[53] The elevators were designed to move at 1,200 feet per minute (366 m/min). At the time of the skyscraper's construction, their practical speed was limited to 700 feet per minute (213 m/min) as per city law, but this limit was removed shortly after the building opened.[274][53] Additional elevators connect the 80th floor to the six floors above it, as the six extra floors were built after the original 80 stories were approved.[54][276] The elevators were mechanically operated until 2011, when they were replaced with digital elevators during the $550 million renovation of the building.[277] The Empire State Building has 73 elevators in all, including service elevators.[270] Lobby Fifth Avenue lobby The original main lobby is accessed from Fifth Avenue, on the building's east side, and contains an entrance with one set of double doors between a pair of revolving doors. At the top of each doorway is a bronze motif depicting one of three "crafts or industries" used in the building's construction—Electricity, Masonry, and Heating.[278] The lobby contains two tiers of marble, a lighter marble on the top, above the storefronts, and a darker marble on the bottom, flush with the storefronts. There is a pattern of zigzagging terrazzo tiles on the lobby floor, which leads from the entrance on the east to the aluminum relief on the west.[279] The chapel-like three-story-high lobby, which runs parallel to 33rd and 34th Streets, contains storefronts on both its northern and southern sides.[280] These storefronts are framed on each side by tubes of dark "modernistically rounded marble", according to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and above by a vertical band of grooves set into the marble.[279] Immediately inside the lobby is an airport-style security checkpoint.[281] The side entrances from 33rd and 34th Street lead to two-story-high corridors around the elevator core, crossed by stainless steel and glass-enclosed bridges at the second floor.[253][256] The walls on both the northern and southern sides of the lobby house storefronts and escalators to a mezzanine level.[279][h] At the west end of the lobby is an aluminum relief of the skyscraper as it was originally built (i.e. without the antenna).[282] The relief, which was intended to provide a welcoming effect,[283] contains an embossing of the building's outline, accompanied by what the Landmarks Preservation Commission describes as "the rays of an aluminum sun shining out behind [the building] and mingling with aluminum rays emanating from the spire of the Empire State Building". In the background is a state map of New York with the building's location marked by a "medallion" in the very southeast portion of the outline. A compass is located in the bottom right and a plaque to the building's major developers is on the bottom left.[284] Aluminum relief of the building The plaque at the western end of the lobby is located on the eastern interior wall of a one-story tall rectangular-shaped corridor that surrounds the banks of escalators, with a similar design to the lobby.[285] The rectangular shaped corridor actually consists of two long hallways on the northern and southern sides of the rectangle,[286] as well as a shorter hallway on the eastern side and another long hallway on the western side.[285] At both ends of the northern and southern corridors, there is a bank of four low-rise elevators in between the corridors.[207] The western side of the rectangular elevator-bank corridor extends north to the 34th Street entrance and south to the 33rd Street entrance. It borders three large storefronts and leads to escalators that go both to the second floor and to the basement. Going from west to east, there are secondary entrances to 34th and 33rd Streets from both the northern and southern corridors, respectively, at approximately the two-thirds point of each corridor.[279][h] Until the 1960s, an art deco mural, inspired by both the sky and the Machine Age, was installed in the lobby ceilings.[282] Subsequent damage to these murals, designed by artist Leif Neandross, resulted in reproductions being installed. Renovations to the lobby in 2009, such as replacing the clock over the information desk in the Fifth Avenue lobby with an anemometer and installing two chandeliers intended to be part of the building when it originally opened, revived much of its original grandeur.[229] The north corridor contained eight illuminated panels created in 1963 by Roy Sparkia and Renée Nemorov, in time for the 1964 World's Fair, depicting the building as the Eighth Wonder of the World alongside the traditional seven.[207][287] The building's owners installed a series of paintings by the New York artist Kysa Johnson in the concourse level. Johnson later filed a federal lawsuit, in January 2014, under the Visual Artists Rights Act alleging the negligent destruction of the paintings and damage to her reputation as an artist.[288] As part of the building's 2010 renovation, Denise Amses commissioned a work consisting of 15,000 stars and 5,000 circles, superimposed on a 13-by-5-foot (4.0 by 1.5 m) etched-glass installation, in the lobby.[289] Above the 102nd floor The final stage of the building was the installation of a hollow mast, a 158-foot (48 m) steel shaft fitted with elevators and utilities, above the 86th floor. At the top would be a conical roof and the 102nd-floor docking station.[290][143] Inside, the elevators would ascend 167 feet (51 m) from the 86th floor ticket offices to a 33-foot-wide (10 m) 101st-floor[g] waiting room.[160][157] From there, stairs would lead to the 102nd floor,[g] where passengers would enter the airships.[290] The airships would have been moored to the spire at the equivalent of the building's 106th floor.[157][158] As constructed, the mast contains four rectangular tiers topped by a cylindrical shaft with a conical pinnacle.[143] On the 102nd floor (formerly the 101st floor), there is a door with stairs ascending to the 103rd floor (formerly the 102nd).[g] This was built as a disembarkation floor for airships tethered to the building's spire, and has a circular balcony outside.[13] It is now an access point to reach the spire for maintenance. The room now contains electrical equipment, but celebrities and dignitaries may also be given permission to take pictures there.[291][292] Above the 103rd floor, there is a set of stairs and a ladder to reach the spire for maintenance work.[291] The mast's 480 windows were all replaced in 2015.[293] The mast serves as the base of the building's broadcasting antenna.[143] Broadcast stations Antennae for broadcast stations are located at the top of the building Broadcasting began at the Empire State Building on December 22, 1931, when NBC and RCA began transmitting experimental television broadcasts from a small antenna erected atop the mast, with two separate transmitters for the visual and audio data. They leased the 85th floor and built a laboratory there.[155] In 1934, RCA was joined by Edwin Howard Armstrong in a cooperative venture to test his FM system from the building's antenna.[294][295] This setup, which entailed the installation of the world's first FM transmitter,[295] continued only until October of the next year due to disputes between RCA and Armstrong.[155][294] Specifically, NBC wanted to install more TV equipment in the room where Armstrong's transmitter was located.[295] After some time, the 85th floor became home to RCA's New York television operations initially as experimental station W2XBS channel 1 then, from 1941, as commercial station WNBT channel 1 (now WNBC channel 4). NBC's FM station, W2XDG, began transmitting from the antenna in 1940.[155][296] NBC retained exclusive use of the top of the building until 1950 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ordered the exclusive deal be terminated. The FCC directive was based on consumer complaints that a common location was necessary for the seven extant New York-area television stations to transmit from so that receiving antennas would not have to be constantly adjusted. Other television broadcasters would later join RCA at the building on the 81st through 83rd floors, often along with sister FM stations.[155] Construction of a dedicated broadcast tower began on July 27, 1950,[171] with TV, and FM, transmissions starting in 1951. The 200-foot (61 m) broadcast tower was completed in 1953.[143][43][172] From 1951, six broadcasters agreed to pay a combined $600,000 per year for the use of the antenna.[174] In 1965, a separate set of FM antennae was constructed ringing the 103rd floor observation area to act as a master antenna.[155] The placement of the stations in the Empire State Building became a major issue with the construction of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in the late 1960s, and early 1970s. The greater height of the Twin Towers would reflect radio waves broadcast from the Empire State Building, eventually resulting in some broadcasters relocating to the newer towers instead of suing the developer, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.[297] Even though the nine stations who were broadcasting from the Empire State Building were leasing their broadcast space until 1984, most of these stations moved to the World Trade Center as soon as it was completed in 1971. The broadcasters obtained a court order stipulating that the Port Authority had to build a mast and transmission equipment in the North Tower, as well as pay the broadcasters' leases in the Empire State Building until 1984.[202] Only a few broadcasters renewed their leases in the Empire State Building.[298] The September 11 attacks in 2001 destroyed the World Trade Center and the broadcast centers atop it, leaving most of the city's stations without a station for ten days until a temporary tower was built in Alpine, New Jersey.[299] By October 2001, nearly all of the city's commercial broadcast stations (both television and FM radio) were again transmitting from the top of the Empire State Building. In a report that Congress commissioned about the transition from analog television to digital television, it was stated that the placement of broadcast stations in the Empire State Building was considered "problematic" due to interference from nearby buildings. In comparison, the Congressional report stated that the former Twin Towers had very few buildings of comparable height nearby thus signals suffered little interference.[223] In 2003, a few FM stations were relocated to the nearby Condé Nast Building to reduce the number of broadcast stations using the Empire State Building.[300] Eleven television stations and twenty-two FM stations had signed 15-year leases in the building by May 2003. It was expected that a taller broadcast tower in Bayonne, New Jersey, or Governors Island, would be built in the meantime with the Empire State Building being used as a "backup" since signal transmissions from the building were generally of poorer quality.[301] Following the construction of One World Trade Center in the late 2000s and early 2010s, some TV stations began moving their transmitting facilities there.[302] As of 2018, the Empire State Building is home to the following stations:[303] Television: WABC-7, WPIX-11, WXTV-41 Paterson, and WFUT-68 Newark FM: WNYL-92.3, WPAT-93.1 Paterson, WNYC-93.9, WPLJ-95.5, WXNY-96.3, WQHT-97.1, WSKQ-97.9, WEPN-98.7, WHTZ-100.3 Newark, WCBS-101.1, WFAN-101.9, WNEW-FM-102.7, WKTU-103.5 Lake Success, WAXQ-104.3, WWPR-105.1, WQXR-105.9 Newark, WLTW-106.7 and WBLS-107.5 Observation decks 80th floor observation deck The 80th, 86th, and 102nd floors contain observatories.[304][282][250] The latter two observatories saw a combined average of four million visitors per year in 2010.[105][305][306] Since opening, the observatories have been more popular than similar observatories at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the Chrysler Building, the first One World Trade Center, or the Woolworth Building, despite being more expensive.[305] There are variable charges to enter the observatories; one ticket allows visitors to go as high as the 86th floor, and there is an additional charge to visit the 102nd floor. Other ticket options for visitors include scheduled access to view the sunrise from the observatory, a "premium" guided tour with VIP access, and the "AM/PM" package which allows for two visits in the same day.[307] Interior and exterior observation decks at the 86th floor The 86th floor observatory contains both an enclosed viewing gallery and an open-air outdoor viewing gallery, allowing for it to remain open 365 days a year regardless of the weather. The 102nd floor observatory is completely enclosed and much smaller in size. The 102nd floor observatory was closed to the public from the late 1990s to 2005 due to limited viewing capacity and long lines.[308][309] The observation decks were redesigned in mid-1979.[204] The 102nd floor was again redesigned in a project that was completed in 2019.[246][247] An observatory on the 80th floor, opened in 2019, includes various exhibits as well as a mural of the skyline drawn by British artist Stephen Wiltshire.[249][250] According to a 2010 report by Concierge.com, the five lines to enter the observation decks are "as legendary as the building itself". Concierge.com stated that there are five lines: the sidewalk line, the lobby elevator line, the ticket purchase line, the second elevator line, and the line to get off the elevator and onto the observation deck.[310] However, in 2016, New York City's official tourism website, NYCgo.com, made note of only three lines: the security check line, the ticket purchase line, and the second elevator line.[311] Following renovations completed in 2019, designed to streamline queuing and reduce wait times, guests enter from a single entrance on 34th Street, where they make their way through 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) exhibits on their way up to the observatories. Guests were offered a variety of ticket packages, including a package that enables them to skip the lines throughout the duration of their stay.[247] The Empire State Building garners significant revenue from ticket sales for its observation decks, making more money from ticket sales than it does from renting office space during some years.[305][312] A 360° panoramic view of New York City from the 86th-floor observation deck in spring 2005. East River is to the left, Hudson River to the right, south is near center. New York Skyride In early 1994, a motion simulator attraction was built on the 2nd floor,[313] as a complement to the observation deck.[314] The original cinematic presentation lasted approximately 25 minutes, while the simulation was about eight minutes.[315] The ride had 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.[316][317] After the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the ride was closed.[314] An updated version debuted in mid-2002, featuring actor Kevin Bacon as the pilot, with the new flight also going haywire.[318] This new version served a more informative goal, as opposed to the old version's main purpose of entertainment, and contained details about the 9/11 attacks.[319] The simulator received mixed reviews, with assessments of the ride ranging from "great" to "satisfactory" to "corny".[320] Lights The building lit up for NYC Pride in 2015 The building was originally equipped with white searchlights at the top. They were first used in November 1932 when they lit up to signal Roosevelt's victory over Hoover in the presidential election of that year.[321] These were later swapped for four "Freedom Lights" in 1956.[321] In February 1964, flood lights were added on the 72nd floor[187] to illuminate the top of the building at night so that the building could be seen from the World Fair later that year.[188] The lights were shut off from November 1973 to July 1974 because of the energy crisis at the time.[32] In 1976, the businessman Douglas Leigh suggested that Wien and Helmsley install 204 metal-halide lights, which were four times as bright as the 1,000 incandescent lights they were to replace.[322] New red, white, and blue metal-halide lights were installed in time for the country's bicentennial that July.[32][323] After the bicentennial, Helmsley retained the new lights due to the reduced maintenance cost, about $116 a year.[322] Since 1976, the spire has been lit in colors chosen to match seasonal events and holidays. Organizations are allowed to make requests through the building's website.[324] The building is also lit in the colors of New York-based sports teams on nights when they host games: for example, orange, blue, and white for the New York Knicks; red, white, and blue for the New York Rangers.[325] It was twice lit in scarlet to support New Jersey's Rutgers University, once for a football game against the University of Louisville on November 9, 2006, and again on April 3, 2007, when the women's basketball team played in the national championship game.[326] The spire can also be lit to commemorate occasions such as disasters, anniversaries, or deaths. For instance, in 1998, the building was lit in blue after the death of singer Frank Sinatra, who was nicknamed "Ol' Blue Eyes".[327] The structure was lit in red, white, and blue for several months after the destruction of the World Trade Center in September 2001.[328] On January 13, 2012, the building was lit in red, orange, and yellow to honor the 60th anniversary of NBC program The Today Show.[329] After retired basketball player Kobe Bryant's January 2020 death, the building was lit in purple and gold, signifying the colors of his former team, the Los Angeles Lakers.[330] Lights representing the Democratic and Republican parties just prior to the 2012 election In 2012, the building's four hundred metal halide lamps and floodlights were replaced with 1,200 LED fixtures, increasing the available colors from nine to over 16 million.[331] The computer-controlled system allows the building to be illuminated in ways that were unable to be done previously with plastic gels.[332] For instance, on November 6, 2012, CNN used the top of the Empire State Building as a scoreboard for the 2012 United States presidential election. When incumbent president Barack Obama had reached the 270 electoral votes necessary to win re-election, the lights turned blue, representing the color of Obama's Democratic Party. Had Republican challenger Mitt Romney won, the building would have been lit red, the color of the Republican Party.[333] Also, on November 26, 2012, the building had its first synchronized light show, using music from recording artist Alicia Keys.[334] Artists such as Eminem and OneRepublic have been featured in later shows, including the building's annual Holiday Music-to-Lights Show.[335] The building's owners adhere to strict standards in using the lights; for instance, they do not use the lights to play advertisements.[332] Height records Height comparison of several New York City buildings, with Empire State second from left The longest world record held by the Empire State Building was for the tallest skyscraper (to structural height), which it held for 42 years until it was surpassed by the North Tower of the World Trade Center in October 1970.[199][221][336] The Empire State Building was also the tallest man-made structure in the world before it was surpassed by the Griffin Television Tower Oklahoma (KWTV Mast) in 1954,[337] and the tallest freestanding structure in the world until the completion of the Ostankino Tower in 1967.[199] An early-1970s proposal to dismantle the spire and replace it with an additional 11 floors, which would have brought the building's height to 1,494 feet (455 m) and made it once again the world's tallest at the time, was considered but ultimately rejected.[338] With the destruction of the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York City, and the second-tallest building in the Americas, surpassed only by the Willis Tower in Chicago. The Empire State Building remained the tallest building in New York until the new One World Trade Center reached a greater height in April 2012.[199][221][222][339] As of September 2020, it is the seventh-tallest building in New York City after One World Trade Center, 111 West 57th Street, Central Park Tower, One Vanderbilt, 432 Park Avenue, and 30 Hudson Yards. It is the fifth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States behind the two other tallest buildings in New York City, as well as the Willis Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.[340] The Empire State Building is the 49th-tallest in the world as of February 2021.[341] It is also the sixth-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas behind the five tallest buildings and the CN Tower.[342] Notable tenants As of 2013, the building houses around 1,000 businesses.[343] Current tenants include: Air China[344] Boy Scouts of America, Greater New York Councils[345] Bulova[346] Coty[347] Croatian National Tourist Board[348] Expedia Group[349] Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation[350] Global Brands Group[346] Filipino Reporter[348] Helios and Matheson[351] HNTB[352] Human Rights Foundation[353] Human Rights Watch[348] JCDecaux[346] Kaplan International Center[354] Li & Fung[355] LinkedIn[356] Media General[357] Noven Pharmaceuticals[358] Palo Alto Networks[346] People's Daily[359] Qatar Airways[360] RaySearch Laboratories[361] Shutterstock[346] Skanska[346] Turkish Airlines[362] Workday, Inc.[363] World Monuments Fund[364] Former tenants include: The National Catholic Welfare Council (now Catholic Relief Services, located in Baltimore)[365] The King's College (now located at 56 Broadway)[366] China National Tourist Office[348] (now located at 370 Lexington Avenue)[367] National Film Board of Canada[348] (now located at 1123 Broadway)[368] Nathaniel Branden Institute[369] Schenley Industries[370] Incidents 1945 plane crash Main article: B-25 Empire State Building crash A black-and-white photo of airplane wreckage embedded in the facade, high up Wreckage from the 1945 Empire State Building B-25 crash At 9:40 am on July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber, piloted in thick fog by Lieutenant Colonel William Franklin Smith Jr.,[371] crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building between the 79th and 80th floors where the offices of the National Catholic Welfare Council were located.[166] One engine completely penetrated the building, landing on the roof of a nearby building where it started a fire that destroyed a penthouse.[365][372] The other engine and part of the landing gear plummeted down an elevator shaft causing a fire, which was extinguished in 40 minutes. Fourteen people were killed in the incident.[167][70] Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a plunge of 75 stories inside an elevator, which still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall recorded.[373] Despite the damage and loss of life, the building was open for business on many floors two days later.[167][168] The crash helped spur the passage of the long-pending Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, as well as the insertion of retroactive provisions into the law, allowing people to sue the government for the incident.[374] Also as a result of the crash, the Civil Aeronautics Administration enacted strict regulations regarding flying over New York City, setting a minimum flying altitude of 2,500 feet (760 m) above sea level regardless of the weather conditions.[375][167] A year later, on July 24, 1946, another aircraft narrowly missed striking the building. The unidentified twin-engine plane scraped past the observation deck, scaring the tourists there.[376] 2000 elevator plunge On January 24, 2000, an elevator in the building suddenly descended 40 stories after a cable that controlled the cabin's maximum speed was severed.[377] The elevator fell from the 44th floor to the fourth floor, where a narrowed elevator shaft provided a second safety system. Despite the 40-floor fall, both of the passengers in the cabin at the time were only slightly injured.[378] Since that elevator had no fourth-floor doors, the passengers were rescued by an adjacent elevator.[379] After the fall, building inspectors reviewed all of the building's elevators.[378] Suicide attempts Because of the building's iconic status, it and other Midtown landmarks are popular locations for suicide attempts.[380] More than 30 people have attempted suicide over the years by jumping from the upper parts of the building, with most attempts being successful.[381][382] The first suicide from the building occurred on April 7, 1931, before it was even completed, when a carpenter who had been laid-off went to the 58th floor and jumped.[383] The first suicide after the building's opening occurred from the 86th floor observatory in February 1935, when Irma P. Eberhardt fell 1,029 feet (314 m) onto a marquee sign.[384] On December 16, 1943, William Lloyd Rambo jumped to his death from the 86th floor, landing amidst Christmas shoppers on the street below.[385] In the early morning of September 27, 1946, shell-shocked Marine Douglas W. Brashear Jr. jumped from the 76th-floor window of the Grant Advertising Agency; police found his shoes 50 feet (15 m) from his body.[386] On May 1, 1947, Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the 86th floor observation deck and landed on a limousine parked at the curb. Photography student Robert Wiles took a photo of McHale's oddly intact corpse a few minutes after her death. The police found a suicide note among possessions that she left on the observation deck: "He is much better off without me.... I wouldn't make a good wife for anybody". The photo ran in the May 12, 1947 edition of Life magazine[387] and is often referred to as "The Most Beautiful Suicide". It was later used by visual artist Andy Warhol in one of his prints entitled Suicide (Fallen Body).[388] A 7-foot (2.1 m) mesh fence was put up around the 86th floor terrace in December 1947 after five people tried to jump during a three-week span in October and November of that year.[389][390] By then, sixteen people had died from suicide jumps.[389] Only one person has jumped from the upper observatory. Frederick Eckert of Astoria ran past a guard in the enclosed 102nd floor gallery on November 3, 1932, and jumped a gate leading to an outdoor catwalk intended for dirigible passengers. He landed and died on the roof of the 86th floor observation promenade.[391] Two people have survived falls by not falling more than a floor. On December 2, 1979, Elvita Adams jumped from the 86th floor, only to be blown back onto a ledge on the 85th floor by a gust of wind and left with a broken hip.[392][393][394] On April 25, 2013, a man fell from the 86th floor observation deck, but he landed alive with minor injuries on an 85th-floor ledge where security guards brought him inside and paramedics transferred him to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.[395] Shootings Two fatal shootings have occurred in the direct vicinity of the Empire State Building. Abu Kamal, a 69-year-old Palestinian teacher, shot seven people on the 86th floor observation deck during the afternoon of February 23, 1997. He killed one person and wounded six others before committing suicide.[396] Kamal reportedly committed the shooting in response to events happening in Palestine and Israel.[397] On the morning of August 24, 2012, 58-year-old Jeffrey T. Johnson shot and killed a former co-worker on the building's Fifth Avenue sidewalk. He had been laid off from his job in 2011. Two police officers confronted the gunman, and he aimed his firearm at them. They responded by firing 16 shots, killing him but also wounding nine bystanders. Most of the injured were hit by bullet fragments, although three took direct hits from bullets.[12][398] Impact The Empire State Building, Glenn Odem Coleman, c. 1931 As the tallest building in the world and the first one to exceed 100 floors, the Empire State Building immediately became an icon of the city and of the nation.[126][135][203] In 2013, Time magazine noted that the Empire State Building "seems to completely embody the city it has become synonymous with".[399] The historian John Tauranac called it "'the' twentieth-century New York building", despite the existence of taller and more modernist buildings.[400] Early architectural critics also focused on the Empire State Building's exterior ornamentation.[38] Architectural critic Talbot Hamlin wrote in 1931, "That it is the world's tallest building is purely incidental."[401] George Shepard Chappell, writing in The New Yorker under the pseudonym "T-Square", wrote the same year that the Empire State Building had a "palpably enormous" appeal to the general public, and that "its difference and distinction [lay] in the extreme sensitiveness of its entire design".[38][402] However, architectural critics also wrote negatively of the mast, especially in light of its failure to become a real air terminal. Chappell called the mast "a silly gesture" and Lewis Mumford called it "a public comfort station for migratory birds".[38] Nevertheless, architecture critic Douglas Haskell said the Empire State Building's appeal came from the fact that it was "caught at the exact moment of transition—caught between metal and stone, between the idea of 'monumental mass' and that of airy volume, between handicraft and machine design, and in the swing from what was essentially handicraft to what will be essentially industrial methods of fabrication."[403][404] Status as an icon Early in the building's history, travel companies such as Short Line Motor Coach Service and New York Central Railroad used the building as an icon to symbolize the city.[405] After the construction of the first World Trade Center, architect Paul Goldberger noted that the Empire State Building "is famous for being tall, but it is good enough to be famous for being good."[204] As an icon of the United States, it is also very popular among Americans. In a 2007 survey, the American Institute of Architects found that the Empire State Building was "America's favorite building".[406] The building was originally a symbol of hope in a country devastated by the Depression, as well as a work of accomplishment by newer immigrants.[126] The writer Benjamin Flowers states that the Empire State was "a building intended to celebrate a new America, built by men (both clients and construction workers) who were themselves new Americans."[121] The architectural critic Jonathan Glancey refers to the building as an "icon of American design".[343] The Empire State Building has been hailed as an example of a "wonder of the world" due to the massive effort expended during construction. The Washington Star listed it as part of one of the "seven wonders of the modern world" in 1931, while Holiday magazine wrote in 1958 that the Empire State's height would be taller than the combined heights of the Eiffel Tower and the Great Pyramid of Giza.[400] The American Society of Civil Engineers also declared the building "A Modern Civil Engineering Wonder of the United States" in 1958, and one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World in 1994.[182] Ron Miller, in a 2010 book, also described the Empire State Building as one of the "seven wonders of engineering".[407] It has often been called the Eighth Wonder of the World as well, an appellation that it has held since shortly after opening.[69][164][408] The panels installed in the lobby in 1963 reflected this, showing the seven original wonders alongside the Empire State Building.[287] The Empire State Building also became a standard of reference for the height and length of other structures globally, both natural and man-made.[409] In popular culture Main article: Empire State Building in popular culture As an icon of New York City, the Empire State Building has been featured in various films, books, TV shows, and video games. According to the building's official website, more than 250 movies contain depictions of the Empire State Building.[410] In his book about the building, John Tauranac writes that its first documented appearance in popular culture was Swiss Family Manhattan, a 1932 children's story by Christopher Morley.[411] A year later, the film King Kong depicted Kong, a large stop motion ape that climbs the Empire State Building,[137][138][281] bringing the building into the popular imagination.[281] Later movies such as An Affair to Remember (1957), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and Independence Day (1996) also featured the building.[412][410] The building has also been featured in other works, such as "Daleks in Manhattan", a 2007 episode of the TV series Doctor Who;[412] and Empire, an eight-hour black-and-white silent film by Andy Warhol,[412] which was later added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry.[413] Empire State Building Run-Up The Empire State Building Run-Up, a foot race from ground level to the 86th-floor observation deck, has been held annually since 1978. Its participants are referred to both as runners and as climbers, and are often tower running enthusiasts. The race covers a vertical distance of 1,050 ft (320 m) and takes in 1,576 steps. The record time is 9 minutes and 33 seconds, achieved by Australian professional cyclist Paul Crake in 2003, at a climbing rate of 6,593 ft (2,010 m) per hour.[414][415]
The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was a New Deal agency created in 1937 to combat rural poverty during the Great Depression in the United States. It succeeded the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937).[1] The FSA is famous for its small but highly influential photography program, 1935–44, that portrayed the challenges of rural poverty. The photographs in the FSA/Office of War Information Photograph Collection form an extensive pictorial record of American life between 1935 and 1944. This U.S. government photography project was headed for most of its existence by Roy Stryker, who guided the effort in a succession of government agencies: the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937), the Farm Security Administration (1937–1942), and the Office of War Information (1942–1944). The collection also includes photographs acquired from other governmental and nongovernmental sources, including the News Bureau at the Offices of Emergency Management (OEM), various branches of the military, and industrial corporations.[2] In total, the black-and-white portion of the collection consists of about 175,000 black-and-white film negatives, encompassing both negatives that were printed for FSA-OWI use and those that were not printed at the time. Color transparencies also made by the FSA/OWI are available in a separate section of the catalog: FSA/OWI Color Photographs.[2] The FSA stressed "rural rehabilitation" efforts to improve the lifestyle of very poor landowning farmers, and a program to purchase submarginal land owned by poor farmers and resettle them in group farms on land more suitable for efficient farming. Reactionary critics, including the Farm Bureau, strongly opposed the FSA as an alleged experiment in collectivizing agriculture—that is, in bringing farmers together to work on large government-owned farms using modern techniques under the supervision of experts. After the Conservative coalition took control of Congress, it transformed the FSA into a program to help poor farmers buy land, and that program continues to operate in the 21st century as the Farmers Home Administration. Origins Walker Evans portrait of Allie Mae Burroughs (1936) Arthur Rothstein photograph "Dust Bowl Cimarron County, Oklahoma" of a farmer and two sons during a dust storm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma (1936) Dorothea Lange photograph of an Arkansas squatter of three years near Bakersfield, California (1935) The projects that were combined in 1935 to form the Resettlement Administration (RA) started in 1933 as an assortment of programs tried out by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The RA was headed by Rexford Tugwell, an economic advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[3] However, Tugwell's goal moving 650,000 people into 100,000,000 acres (400,000 km2) of exhausted, worn-out land was unpopular among the majority in Congress.[3] This goal seemed socialistic to some and threatened to deprive powerful farm proprietors of their tenant workforce.[3] The RA was thus left with only enough resources to relocate a few thousand people from 9 million acres (36,000 km2) and build several greenbelt cities,[3] which planners admired as models for a cooperative future that never arrived.[3] The main focus of the RA was to now build relief camps in California for migratory workers, especially refugees from the drought-stricken Dust Bowl of the Southwest.[3] This move was resisted by a large share of Californians, who did not want destitute migrants to settle in their midst.[3] The RA managed to construct 95 camps that gave migrants unaccustomed clean quarters with running water and other amenities,[3] but the 75,000 people who had the benefit of these camps were a small share of those in need and could only stay temporarily.[3] After facing enormous criticism for his poor management of the RA, Tugwell resigned in 1936.[3] On January 1, 1937,[4] with hopes of making the RA more effective, the RA was transferred to the Department of Agriculture through executive order 7530.[4] On July 22, 1937,[5] Congress passed the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act.[5] This law authorized a modest credit program to assist tenant farmers to purchase land,[5] and it was the culmination of a long effort to secure legislation for their benefit.[5] Following the passage of the act, Congress passed the Farm Security Act into law. The Farm Security Act officially transformed the RA into the Farm Security Administration (FSA).[3] The FSA expanded through funds given by the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act.[3] Relief work One of the activities performed by the RA and FSA was the buying out of small farms that were not economically viable, and the setting up of 34 subsistence homestead communities, in which groups of farmers lived together under the guidance of government experts and worked a common area. They were not allowed to purchase their farms for fear that they would fall back into inefficient practices not guided by RA and FSA experts.[6] The Dust Bowl in the Great Plains displaced thousands of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and laborers, many of whom (known as "Okies" or "Arkies") moved on to California. The FSA operated camps for them, such as Weedpatch Camp as depicted in The Grapes of Wrath. The RA and the FSA gave educational aid to 455,000 farm families during the period 1936-1943. In June, 1936, Roosevelt wrote: "You are right about the farmers who suffer through their own fault... I wish you would have a talk with Tugwell about what he is doing to educate this type of farmer to become self-sustaining. During the past year, his organization has made 104,000 farm families practically self-sustaining by supervision and education along practical lines. That is a pretty good record!"[7] The FSA's primary mission was not to aid farm production or prices. Roosevelt's agricultural policy had, in fact, been to try to decrease agricultural production to increase prices. When production was discouraged, though, the tenant farmers and small holders suffered most by not being able to ship enough to market to pay rents. Many renters wanted money to buy farms, but the Agriculture Department realized there already were too many farmers, and did not have a program for farm purchases. Instead, they used education to help the poor stretch their money further. Congress, however, demanded that the FSA help tenant farmers purchase farms, and purchase loans of $191 million were made, which were eventually repaid. A much larger program was $778 million in loans (at effective rates of about 1% interest) to 950,000 tenant farmers. The goal was to make the farmer more efficient so the loans were used for new machinery, trucks, or animals, or to repay old debts. At all times, the borrower was closely advised by a government agent. Family needs were on the agenda, as the FSA set up a health insurance program and taught farm wives how to cook and raise children. Upward of a third of the amount was never repaid, as the tenants moved to much better opportunities in the cities.[8] The FSA was also one of the authorities administering relief efforts in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico during the Great Depression. Between 1938 and 1945, under the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, it oversaw the purchase of 590 farms with the intent of distributing land to working and middle-class Puerto Ricans.[9] Modernization The FSA resettlement communities appear in the literature as efforts to ameliorate the wretched condition of southern sharecroppers and tenants, but those evicted to make way for the new settlers are virtually invisible in the historic record. The resettlement projects were part of larger efforts to modernize rural America. The removal of former tenants and their replacement by FSA clients in the lower Mississippi alluvial plain—the Delta—reveals core elements of New Deal modernizing policies. The key concepts that guided the FSA's tenant removals were: the definition of rural poverty as rooted in the problem of tenancy; the belief that economic success entailed particular cultural practices and social forms; and the commitment by those with political power to gain local support. These assumptions undergirded acceptance of racial segregation and the criteria used to select new settlers. Alternatives could only become visible through political or legal action—capacities sharecroppers seldom had. In succeeding decades, though, these modernizing assumptions created conditions for Delta African Americans on resettlement projects to challenge white supremacy.[10] FSA and its contribution to society The documentary photography genre describes photographs that would work as a time capsule for evidence in the future or a certain method that a person can use for a frame of reference. Facts presented in a photograph can speak for themselves after the viewer gets time to analyze it. The motto of the FSA was simply, as Beaumont Newhall insists, "not to inform us, but to move us."[citation needed] Those photographers wanted the government to move and give a hand to the people, as they were completely neglected and overlooked, thus they decided to start taking photographs in a style that we today call "documentary photography." The FSA photography has been influential due to its realist point of view, and because it works as a frame of reference and an educational tool from which later generations could learn. Society has benefited and will benefit from it for more years to come, as this photography can unveil the ambiguous and question the conditions that are taking place.[11] Photography program The RA and FSA are well known for the influence of their photography program, 1935–1944. Photographers and writers were hired to report and document the plight of poor farmers. The Information Division (ID) of the FSA was responsible for providing educational materials and press information to the public. Under Roy Stryker, the ID of the FSA adopted a goal of "introducing America to Americans." Many of the most famous Depression-era photographers were fostered by the FSA project. Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks were three of the most famous FSA alumni.[12] The FSA was also cited in Gordon Parks' autobiographical novel, A Choice of Weapons. The FSA's photography was one of the first large-scale visual documentations of the lives of African-Americans.[13] These images were widely disseminated through the Twelve Million Black Voices collection, published in October 1941, which combined FSA photographs selected by Edwin Rosskam and text by author and poet Richard Wright. Photographers Fifteen photographers (ordered by year of hire) would produce the bulk of work on this project. Their diverse, visual documentation elevated government's mission from the "relocation" tactics of a Resettlement Administration to strategic solutions which would depend on America recognizing rural and already poor Americans, facing death by depression and dust. FSA photographers: Arthur Rothstein (1935), Theodor Jung (1935), Ben Shahn (1935), Walker Evans (1935), Dorothea Lange (1935), Carl Mydans (1935), Russell Lee (1936), Marion Post Wolcott (1936), John Vachon (1936, photo assignments began in 1938), Jack Delano (1940), John Collier (1941), Marjory Collins (1941), Louise Rosskam (1941), Gordon Parks (1942) and Esther Bubley (1942). With America's entry into World War II, FSA would focus on a different kind of relocation as orders were issued for internment of Japanese Americans. FSA photographers would be transferred to the Office of War Information during the last years of the war and completely disbanded at the war's end. Photographers like Howard R. Hollem, Alfred T. Palmer, Arthur Siegel and OWI's Chief of Photographers John Rous were working in OWI before FSA's reorganization there. As a result of both teams coming under one unit name, these other individuals are sometimes associated with RA-FSA's pre-war images of American life. Though collectively credited with thousands of Library of Congress images, military ordered, positive-spin assignments like these four received starting in 1942, should be separately considered from pre-war, depression triggered imagery. FSA photographers were able to take time to study local circumstances and discuss editorial approaches with each other before capturing that first image. Each one talented in her or his own right, equal credit belongs to Roy Stryker who recognized, hired and empowered that talent. John Collier Jr. John Collier Jr.   Jack Delano Jack Delano   Walker Evans Walker Evans   Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange   Russell Lee Russell Lee   Carl Mydans Carl Mydans   Gordon Parks Gordon Parks   Arthur Rothstein Arthur Rothstein   John Vachon John Vachon   Marion Post Wolcott Marion Post Wolcott These 15 photographers, some shown above, all played a significant role, not only in producing images for this project, but also in molding the resulting images in the final project through conversations held between the group members. The photographers produced images that breathed a humanistic social visual catalyst of the sort found in novels, theatrical productions, and music of the time. Their images are now regarded as a "national treasure" in the United States, which is why this project is regarded as a work of art.[14] Photograph of Chicago's rail yards by Jack Delano, circa 1943 Together with John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (not a government project) and documentary prose (for example Walker Evans and James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men), the FSA photography project is most responsible for creating the image of the Depression in the United States. Many of the images appeared in popular magazines. The photographers were under instruction from Washington, DC, as to what overall impression the New Deal wanted to portray. Stryker's agenda focused on his faith in social engineering, the poor conditions among tenant cotton farmers, and the very poor conditions among migrant farm workers; above all, he was committed to social reform through New Deal intervention in people's lives. Stryker demanded photographs that "related people to the land and vice versa" because these photographs reinforced the RA's position that poverty could be controlled by "changing land practices." Though Stryker did not dictate to his photographers how they should compose the shots, he did send them lists of desirable themes, for example, "church", "court day", and "barns". Stryker sought photographs of migratory workers that would tell a story about how they lived day-to-day. He asked Dorothea Lange to emphasize cooking, sleeping, praying, and socializing.[15] RA-FSA made 250,000 images of rural poverty. Fewer than half of those images survive and are housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. The library has placed all 164,000 developed negatives online.[16] From these, some 77,000 different finished photographic prints were originally made for the press, plus 644 color images, from 1600 negatives. Documentary films The RA also funded two documentary films by Pare Lorentz: The Plow That Broke the Plains, about the creation of the Dust Bowl, and The River, about the importance of the Mississippi River. The films were deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. World War II activities During World War II, the FSA was assigned to work under the purview of the Wartime Civil Control Administration, a subagency of the War Relocation Authority. These agencies were responsible for relocating Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast to Internment camps. The FSA controlled the agricultural part of the evacuation. Starting in March 1942 they were responsible for transferring the farms owned and operated by Japanese Americans to alternate operators. They were given the dual mandate of ensuring fair compensation for Japanese Americans, and for maintaining correct use of the agricultural land. During this period, Lawrence Hewes Jr was the regional director and in charge of these activities.[17] Reformers ousted; Farmers Home Administration After the war started and millions of factory jobs in the cities were unfilled, no need for FSA remained.[citation needed] In late 1942, Roosevelt moved the housing programs to the National Housing Agency, and in 1943, Congress greatly reduced FSA's activities. The photographic unit was subsumed by the Office of War Information for one year, then disbanded. Finally in 1946, all the social reformers had left and FSA was replaced by a new agency, the Farmers Home Administration, which had the goal of helping finance farm purchases by tenants—and especially by war veterans—with no personal oversight by experts. It became part of Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty in the 1960s, with a greatly expanded budget to facilitate loans to low-income rural families and cooperatives, injecting $4.2 billion into rural America.[18] The Great Depression The Great Depression began in August 1929, when the United States economy first went into an economic recession. Although the country spent two months with declining GDP, the effects of a declining economy were not felt until the Wall Street Crash in October 1929, and a major worldwide economic downturn ensued. Although its causes are still uncertain and controversial, the net effect was a sudden and general loss of confidence in the economic future and a reduction in living standards for most ordinary Americans. The market crash highlighted a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits for industrial firms, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth.[19]
  • Type: Photograph
  • Subject: New York
  • Year of Production: 1945

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