Interesting Facts About the Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is a beautiful skyscraper located in midtown Manhattan, in the city of New York. The building is a whopping 102 floors tall and has the height of 1250 ft., and 1454 ft. with the pinnacle antenna spire.

The Empire State Building was designed by architect William Lamb. The construction of the building began in the year 1930 and was completed the following year surprisingly in only 410 days, approximately forty five days ahead of the projected timeline.

Around 3,400 workers worked on the building's construction.

The Empire State building was officially inaugurated on May 1^st 1931, when President Herbert Hoover turned on the building’s lights with a ceremonial push of the button from Washington, D.C. The opening ceremony was attended by over 350 guests.

Though the Empire State Building is currently the 28^th tallest building in the world, it was at the time of its completion, the tallest building to be constructed in the world and it stayed so for nearly forty long years, i.e. from 1931 to 1970.

In July 1945, on a Saturday morning, a B-25 bomber plane accidentally crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building. The accident was caused due to bad weather conditions and heavy fog.

The crash left a 20 foot gash in the building, killing 14 people including the pilot of the plane Capt. William Smith.

The Empire State Building has its own zip code. That’s right, a building with its own zip code! In the year 1980, the Empire State Building got its own zip code: 10118.

Although the building is located in south midtown within the boundaries of Manhattan’s 10001 zip code, it has multiple entry points from multiple streets.

In 1962, the exterior of the building was cleaned for the first time since its opening in 1931. It took a crew of 30 men and six months to get the cleaning job done.

Over the years, the ESB has become a significant icon in American pop culture.

It has been depicted in many renowned movies such as King Kong, An Affair to Remember, The Amazing Spider-Man, Friends with Benefits, Superman II, Independence Day, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Gossip Girl, Elf, Sleepless in Seattle and many more.

Since the release of the film King Kong in 1933, the scene where King Kong climbs up the Empire State Building holding actress Fay Wray became one of the most iconic scenes in cinematic history.

So, in August 2004 when Fay Wray passed away, the tower lights on the ESB were dimmed for 15 minutes as a sign of respect to pay homage to the beautiful actress.

In the year 1986, the Empire State Building was designated as a National Historic landmark by the National Parks Services of the United States.