The Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is one of the most recognisable structures in the world, an iconic component of New York City’s skyline. Even for those who have never visited, the building is internationally famous thanks to its starring role in a litany of blockbuster films. For decades, it was the tallest building in the world, a title much coveted by American businessmen and architects in the early decades of the previous century. Who was behind this impressive feat of architecture and engineering? How did it become an American cultural icon? And what unexpected events have occurred there in its nearly 100-year lifespan? This is a Short History Of The Empire State Building. A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Anthony W. Robins, founding member and Vice-President Emeritus of the Art Deco Society of New York, as well as formerly Director of Survey at New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, where he wrote the official Commission report on the Empire State Building. He is also the author of New York Art Deco: A Guide to Gotham's Jazz Age Architecture. Written by Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check: Sean Coleman Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• 0:55Speaker 02

  It's the 25th of March 1933, a typically sunny afternoon in Los Angeles, California.

• 1:03Speaker 02

  A young boy named Ray Harrehausen stands open-mouthed before Grommans Chinese Theatre, a decadent movie palace on Hollywood Boulevard.

• 1:14Speaker 02

  As crowds of tourists mill about, he shuffles along, open-mouthed at the pagoda-shaped roof and roaring stone lions guarding the theatre's entrance. His mother clutches the tickets they have won to be here tonight, and he follows closely behind with his aunt, passing through the swinging golden doors and into a different world.

• 1:38Speaker 02

  The foyer is filled with a profusion of hyper-realistic fake bushes.

• 1:44Speaker 02

  In the midst of the scene, framed by the foliage, an enormous gorilla hunkers down. Ray claps a hand to his mouth when, with a hiss of compressed air, the animatronic creature slowly blinks and opens its mouth wide, showing a wicked set of yellow-in-teeth. He had no idea that one of the models used in the film would be on display.

• 2:10Speaker 02

  Ray's mother ushers him past the creature and into the cosy darkness of the cinema. He settles back into the plush velvet seats, eagerly anticipating the start of the film.

• 2:22Speaker 02

  But when the deep red curtains on either side of the stage slowly open, instead of the projector starting up, footlights flare to light, illuminating a troupe of people in African dress on the stage.

• 2:36Speaker 02

  Some start to sing, while others begin a whirling dance, moving hypnotically around the stage.

• 2:44Speaker 02

  Suddenly, Ray's mother tugs at his sleeve and points upwards. Trapezes have been suspended from the ceiling, and as he watches, a pair of dancers take flight, sailing high over the audience's heads and somersaulting in midair.

• 3:02Speaker 02

  The crowd applauds as the performance comes to an end, and then, at last, the lights dim. In the darkness, Ray can hear his own heart hammering in anticipation as the projector whirs to life.

• 3:18Speaker 02

  The theme music swells, and the words "Kong", "The Eighth Wonder of the World", appear on the enormous screen. Ray can barely breathe through his excitement.

• 3:31Speaker 02

  Leaning back in his seat, he falls under the film's spell.

• 3:37Speaker 02

  Ninety minutes later, the story is reaching its climax. Ray nervously digs his fingers into the soft armrest of his chair as he watches King Kong scaling an enormous skyscraper. He recognizes it as New York City's newest landmark, the Empire State Building. The soaring vertical lines of windows on its facade fly past as the monster climbs, navigating the building's stepped sides to reach the very top. The film's heroine clutched in one mighty paw.

• 4:10Speaker 02

  Ray can hardly watch as four small planes circle, each trying to get a shot at the ape, balanced precariously on the Empire State Building's summit. On the screen, Kong grips onto the metal spire that tops the tower with one hand, swatting at planes with the other. After all, where could be more fitting for this giant ape's final battle than the top of the world's tallest building?

• 4:44Speaker 02

  The Empire State Building is one of the most recognizable structures in the world, an iconic component of the skyline of New York City. Even for those who have never visited, the building is internationally famous thanks to its starring role in a litany of blockbuster films.

• 5:04Speaker 02

  Built during the early 1930s, it was completed at the end of a frenetic period of skyscraper construction in New York, which defined the city for much of the 20th century. For decades, it was the tallest building in the world, a much coveted title among American businessmen and architects in the early decades of the previous century.

• 5:29Speaker 02

  So who was behind this impressive feat of architecture and engineering? How did it become an American cultural icon? And what unexpected events have occurred there in its nearly 100-year lifespan?

• 5:45Speaker 02

  I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is A Short History of the Empire State Building.

• 6:00Speaker 02

  New York City lies on the northeastern coast of the United States, where the Hudson River meets the Atlantic Ocean.

• 6:08Speaker 02

  It is comprised of five boroughs, with Manhattan occupying a central position.

• 6:14Speaker 02

  Today, the Empire State Building is a defining feature of Midtown, one of Manhattan's main business districts on the west side of Fifth Avenue. But a century before the skyscraper is constructed, the plot it now occupies is still farmland.

• 6:31Speaker 02

  Anthony W. Robbins is an expert on New York's history and architecture and the author of New York Art Deco: A Guide to Gotham's Jazz Age Architecture.

• 6:40Speaker 03

  It was originally part of a large tract of land owned by the Astor family. They were originally from Germany, and they got to New York in the very late 18th century, and they made it very big in the fur trade. But they were also very clever about real estate. They bought a farm, which today we call Midtown Manhattan. By the mid-19th century, they had picked a couple of lots on what is now Fifth Avenue, between 33rd and 34th Street, and built two houses for two different members of the Astor family, which by then was an extensive family.

• 7:12Speaker 02

  John Jacob Astor, the family patriarch, is the first multimillionaire in American history. Two of his grandsons, John Junior and William, build adjoining homes on Fifth Avenue. At this point, in the middle of the 19th century, it is the city's most fashionable address.

• 7:31Speaker 02

  New York is expanding, and what was farmland just a couple of decades before is now a millionaire's row.

• 7:39Speaker 02

  The street is lined with elaborate mansions owned by the cream of high society, including the famed Vanderbilt family. The two Astor houses become the meeting place for the 400, the name given to New York's social elites. The balls thrown by Mrs. Astor, who marries into the third generation of the family, are particularly legendary.

• 8:04Speaker 02

  In 1890, her nephew, William Waldorf Astor, decides to tear down his house, turning it instead into a 13-story hotel. The Waldorf, named after the family's ancestral home in Germany, opens its doors in 1893. But Mrs. Astor, still living next door, is horrified. How can she maintain her privacy under such conditions? Her son, the fourth John Jacob Astor, who will later perish aboard the Titanic, convinces her to move, and the house is converted into a hotel too, this one named the Astoria.

• 8:41Speaker 03

  They decided at a certain point, why are we competing with each other? Let's just call it the Waldorf Astoria with a hyphen. That's why the hyphen is there. And this became the premier hotel for high society in New York. Any vast gala, debutante ball, anything like that, society events happened in the old Waldorf Astoria.

• 8:58Speaker 02

  The conversion of the Astor houses into the Waldorf Astoria reflects the rapidly changing face of the city. As the area around Fifth Avenue begins to attract hotels, theatres, and restaurants, the millionaires move their private residences further north, away from the noisy commercial centre. Though they still deign to venture to the hotel for any number of balls, galas, and grand dinners.

• 9:25Speaker 02

  Until the end of the 1800s, the tallest buildings here have tended to be religious. But now, New York City's skyline begins to change.

• 9:35Speaker 03

  New York is famous for its skyline, maybe one of the most famous things about it. And it's constantly changing. In the 19th century, the skyline was religious. It was church spires and domes, and that was just sort of the understanding of what the skyline was. And it was something of a shock when that started to change. There was a famous church in Brooklyn Heights that lost its spire in the late 19th century. There was a fire. The pastor of the church said, you know what? We're not going to rebuild the spire because now it would just be competing with the marketplace, with the secular world, and we're just not interested in doing that.

• 10:12Speaker 02

  Around the end of the 19th century, the tallest buildings in the world are Cologne Cathedral, whose spire reaches 512 feet, and the Washington Monument, at 556 feet tall. Though the Eiffel Tower is almost twice the size of these as a mere iron structure, it is not habitable, and therefore doesn't qualify as the tallest building. But soon, the construction of early skyscrapers gets underway.

• 10:41Speaker 03

  The skyscrapers were made possible, really, by two technological factors: the invention of the steel cage, which could hold the structure of the building, and the invention of the elevator, the safety elevator. And once those were in place, it was possible to just go higher and higher and higher.

• 10:59Speaker 02

  A succession of towers is built in Manhattan, each competing to reach greater and greater heights. First, the Singer Tower goes up as the new headquarters of the sewing machine company. This is followed by buildings named after the companies that fund them: the 612-foot Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower in 1909, and the 792-foot Woolworth Building a few years later. This flurry of construction is a uniquely American trend, and it is concentrated in New York.

• 11:31Speaker 03

  America was feeling it, so, after World War I especially. And let's see what we can do. It's a very New York thing, but it's also, I think, a very American thing.

• 11:40Speaker 02

  After 1920, a new fantasy emerges: to build the world's first 1,000-foot skyscraper.

• 11:49Speaker 02

  In part, the dream is driven by the desire for publicity. Newspapers can't get enough of the ever-taller building projects, meaning that, thanks to their breathless reporting, the towers become adverts for whichever company has commissioned them. A case in point is the race in the late 1920s between the Chrysler Building, built by the car company magnet of the same name, and the new Bank of Manhattan Tower. For months, each vie to be taller.

• 12:19Speaker 02

  The competitive nature of these two building projects is heightened by the architects who have been drafted in to design them. William Van Allen is commissioned by Chrysler, and H. Craig Severance by the Manhattan Bank. Business partners for 13 years, their clashing personalities led them to part ways. Now, the rivalry between the introverted Van Allen and the gregarious Severance plays out on the grand stage of the Manhattan skyline.

• 12:47Speaker 03

  The original Chrysler Building was supposed to be 808 feet tall, which is, what, 16 feet taller than the Woolworth Building, perhaps? Not much. Bank of Manhattan said something like, "Well, we're going to be 825. Well, we're going to be 850. Well, we're going to be 875. Well, we're going to be 900." Did I mention these were grown-ups? "And we're going to be 925." And that was Chrysler. Walter Chrysler was not going to lose this battle, and so he arranged for this enormous steel spire, cast in five parts, to be brought secretly to the building and welded together in the building. And then, as dawn broke over the metropolis, raised with a winch into the sky to the height of 1,046 feet, leaving the Bank of Manhattan and everybody else in the dust, and for the first time, taller than the Eiffel Tower.

• 13:31Speaker 02

  As the Chrysler and Bank of Manhattan Towers are reaching towards the sky, someone else is preparing to enter the race to be the world's tallest building, and they are playing to win.

• 13:46Speaker 02

  During the 1928 election season, a man named John Jacob Raskob acts as campaign manager for the Democratic presidential nominee Al Smith. Smith is well-liked and popular, having been, until recently, the New York state governor. Unfortunately for him, Smith loses the presidency to the Republican candidate Herbert Hoover. Fortunately, Raskob, a self-made millionaire, is in a position to offer him a consolation prize.

• 14:14Speaker 03

  There's a story that Raskob and Smith met in the men's room of a hotel where there was some Democratic Party event going on. That they met in the men's room, and Smith was saying, "I don't know what I'm going to do now. I lost the presidential race. I'm not the governor. What am I going to do with myself?" And supposedly, Smith said, "Well, don't worry, Al. You can't be president of the country, but I'm going to make you president of the world's tallest building."

• 14:37Speaker 02

  Raskob immediately gets to work planning a commercial office building in Midtown. In 1929, he co-founds the Empire State Corporation, and Al Smith is appointed as president on a salary of $50,000 a year. But it's far from just an act of charity. Raskob has recognized the sterling economic conditions in America right now and fully intends to cash in on this golden age of prosperity.

• 15:04Speaker 03

  He was the chief executive of General Motors. He may have considered himself a rival of Chrysler's. That might have played into it. But he saw this as a speculative building operation. He was going to make money from it.

• 15:16Speaker 02

  In order to do so and fill it with business tenants when it opens, Raskob needs good publicity, and lots of it. Appointing Al Smith, a popular former governor, the largely ceremonial role of company president is part of the strategy. Another is the choice of location.

• 15:34Speaker 02

  Raskob acquires the plot on which sits the Waldorf Astoria, the city's most exclusive hotel. The Fifth Avenue address comes with a sheen of prestige, but thanks to changes in the city, it is now also an ideal location for a large office building.

• 15:50Speaker 03

  It was really not that great a neighborhood anymore. It had become too commercial. The Waldorf built a second, the current Waldorf Astoria, which is on Park Avenue and 50th Street, so a bit north of that site, and sold the property to the Empire State Building interests, because it had really become more of an area for office buildings. And that's why the Empire State Building is where it is.

• 16:13Speaker 02

  The building's name is another plank in John Raskob's advertising strategy. The Woolworth and Chrysler Buildings had been named after the companies or men who had built them. The Empire State, by contrast, is a nickname for the state of New York itself. It loudly proclaims that this is a building not for one man or one company, but for everyone who lives here.

• 16:37Speaker 02

  With the name, the site, and the face of the project all in place, the final piece of the puzzle is the height. Raskob appoints the architecture firm of Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon Associates to design his building. They understand the link between building height and PR.

• 16:56Speaker 03

  Richmond Shreve wrote in a serious architectural journal, not in the popular press, that, given the realities of construction, there comes a point, he said, where it doesn't make economic sense to go any higher, because you start to lose money, basically, on your investment, unless the expense is charged to the advertising budget.

• 17:18Speaker 02

  Height becomes even more of a concern after the secret spire is raised on the Chrysler Building in late 1929. Raskob is now more determined than ever that his building will take the title as the tallest.

• 17:31Speaker 03

  The original height of the building was just going to be about four feet taller than the Chrysler Building. And the actual building, in the sense of where the floors are, where people work, it stops at the level of the first observatory, the 86-floor observatory. It's really an 86-story building. And that was just four feet taller than the Chrysler Building, even than the spire of the Chrysler Building. Somebody who was in the office, and recounted later the conversation, said that Raskob was afraid that if it was only four feet taller than the Chrysler Building, that Walter Chrysler would pull a trick, like putting a flagpole on top of his Chrysler Building and take the title back. And that's when they came up with the idea for what was called the dirigible mooring mast, that enormous thing at the top in shiny aluminum.

• 18:14Speaker 02

  The main designer, William Lamb, works intensively throughout 1929 on drawing up the plans for this immense 102-story skyscraper, topped with a 200-foot steel and aluminium apparatus to which airships can theoretically moor.

• 18:31Speaker 02

  These elements will combine to make the Empire State Building approximately 1,250 feet tall, over 380 meters.

• 18:41Speaker 02

  Regulations introduced in 1916 mean that the building must be stepped, making it narrower at the top than the bottom. So, a thinner tower is planned, with stepped sides, that will effectively sit on a five-story base that takes up an entire city block. It will blend in at street level until people walking by glance upwards.

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• 21:54Speaker 02

  Nowadays, the design style of the Empire State Building is described as Art Deco, a style characterized by bold geometric shapes, symmetry, and clean lines. Though it's popular throughout the 1920s and 30s, at the time, architects simply used the word "modern" or "modernistic" to describe the skyscrapers of New York, with "Art Deco" as a term only appearing in 1966.

• 22:20Speaker 02

  Whatever label is used, the Empire State Building belongs to this new style, although it is more minimalist than some of its counterparts.

• 22:28Speaker 03

  William Lamb was the chief designer. When I researched the building for the Landmark Preservation Commission's report back in 1980, I discovered that although he was long gone, his widow was still with us. And I asked her all about how the building came to be designed, and she said, "Well, you know, Bill never brought work home from the office, but I can tell you that he really hated what we now call Art Deco." His idea of architecture was the austere Romanesque of the cathedrals of the south of France. So he was a very conservative designer. The Empire State Building, on the outside, we call it Art Deco. It's from that period, certainly like the crash of the building, but it's much more conservatively designed.

• 23:08Speaker 02

  Before work on the Empire State Building can begin in earnest, the Waldorf Astoria must be torn down. After a farewell ball, the doors of this New York institution close for the last time. A grand auction is held to dispose of its contents, and then, on the 1st of October 1929, demolition begins. Dynamite cannot be used for fear of harming adjoining buildings, and so it must be laboriously stripped down. There is little concern about the responsible disposal of materials, though, with wood burned in a nearby swamp and granite and bronze simply dumped into the Atlantic Ocean off the New Jersey coast.

• 23:52Speaker 02

  Construction is slated to begin by the end of the year, but by now, a range of factors throughout 1929, including rising unemployment and a fall in demand for consumer goods, suggests the economy may not be as buoyant as it was. Savvy investors begin to sell off shares in various companies, triggering a domino effect. A panicked frenzy of selling accelerates, and on the 24th of October, known now as Black Thursday, the stock market loses 11% of its value. Similar losses continue over the next few days.

• 24:29Speaker 02

  In the wake of the crash, the world sinks into an economic depression. Factories close, industrial output and international trade slow, and unemployment skyrockets. But the Empire State Building is strangely unaffected. Raskov is not heavily invested in the stock market, and he manages to secure a loan for the construction of his building despite the gloomy economic outlook. By the start of 1930, everything is in place to begin.

• 25:01Speaker 02

  The first stage is to build the steel structure that will form the skeleton of the building. Construction starts on March 17, 1930, and work progresses swiftly, at a rate of four and a half stories a week. The speed of the project is in part thanks to the availability of labor. Following the Wall Street crash, many building projects have been canceled, and so there are plenty of qualified workers to be had. Men with a variety of construction backgrounds are required to build this colossal skyscraper. These blue-collar workers include a large number of Italian, Irish, and Scandinavian immigrants. A sizable minority of the ironworkers who build the steel structure

• 25:44Speaker 02

  are Ganawagay Mohawk, who come from a reservation near Montreal. The names of many of these men do not survive, but a visual record of their work does.

• 26:07Speaker 02

  September 1930, a perfect early autumn day in New York City. The sky is a bright blue, the sunlight's clear and golden.

• 26:18Speaker 02

  Louis Hein, a middle-aged man in a dark suit and hat, sits on a wooden platform with a group of workmen enjoying a smoke break. Unlike him, they're dressed in dusty work overalls, but they chat and laugh companionably together in the open air, shielding their cigarettes from the stiff breeze.

• 26:38Speaker 02

  Because though it is a warm day, these men are a thousand feet in the air, at the top of the nearly-complete steel structure of the Empire State Building. Up here, it tends to get windy.

• 26:52Speaker 02

  Hein finishes his cigarette and flicks it off the edge of the building. Levering himself to his feet, he grabs the strap of the bulky camera sitting next to him and gets back to work.

• 27:05Speaker 02

  Having already made his name as a documentary photographer, he has been hired to take pictures of the men who are bringing the Empire State Building into being.

• 27:15Speaker 02

  Hein watches as one ironworker steps off the edge of the wooden platform and shuffles along a beam onto the outer corner of the steel structure.

• 27:24Speaker 02

  Sitting down, he begins tightening bolts with a wrench as long as his forearm, his wrinkled face creased in concentrations. Louis takes a few steps to the side, framing his shot. The workman on the left, with Manhattan spread out an impossible distance below him, in the very right of the picture, the Chrysler Tower spears into the sky. Hein manually adjusts the lens to bring the image into focus before depressing the shutter button.

• 27:54Speaker 02

  After capturing a few more shots from his position on the wooden scaffolding, it is time for the riskiest shots of the day.

• 28:03Speaker 02

  With his trusty camera over his shoulder, Hein climbs awkwardly into a large metal box suspended on thick cables beside the scaffolding.

• 28:12Speaker 02

  Once inside, he grips tightly onto the sides, and the box is swung out on a crane arm.

• 28:21Speaker 02

  Hein is now dangling over the city. He peers over the edge at the vertiginous drop below. It is too high up to make out individual people, but he takes a moment to appreciate the orderly layout of the city, its buildings and streets neatly arranged into blocks.

• 28:38Speaker 02

  Then, palms sweating, he forces himself to uncurl his fingers from the sides of the box and takes hold of his camera.

• 28:47Speaker 02

  He takes a few shots of welders, known as "skyboys", standing on the edge of the steel structure, but nothing that really speaks to him. Then, he spots something breathtaking. A young man with film-star good looks has stepped off the scaffolding and is climbing up a braided steel cable.

• 29:07Speaker 02

  Dressed in a tank top and overalls, his arms are bare, his tanned biceps flex as he reaches out to tighten the bolt. His feet encased in thick work boots, his entire weight is supported precariously by nothing more than a loop of the cable.

• 29:24Speaker 02

  Hein quickly frames the shot. With the glistening river below him and balanced on only the slimmest support, the workman looks for all the world as though he is flying over the city as he helps to extend its reach into the clouds.

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  If you have seen a picture of the Empire State Building under construction, it was likely taken by Louis Heine, employed to document the process. Despite being in his mid-50s, Heine spends 1930 and 1931 climbing the steel structure alongside much younger and fitter workers. At times, he is even dangled out over the city in a specially-designed box to get the best view of the men at work. His black-and-white pictures capture the skill and daring of the 3,500 workers who are building this soaring tower, as well as the risks to which they're subjected. All told, somewhere between five and 14 people die during construction, including a carpenter who falls down an elevator shaft to his death and a laborer who is hit by falling bricks.

• 32:35Speaker 02

  The growing Empire State Building attracts attention from the media and public alike. Onlookers are reportedly impressed by the daring feats of the steelworkers. New York Magazine describes them evocatively. "Like little spiders they toiled," it says, "spinning a fabric of steel against the sky."

• 32:57Speaker 02

  The site is a hive of constant activity. According to some estimates, trucks carrying 5,000 bags of cement and 300 bags of lime arrive every day. Materials are shipped in from all over the globe: limestone from Indiana, steel girders from Pittsburgh, marble from Italy, France, and England, and timber from the Pacific coast. As the structures rise, cafes and concession stands open on unfinished floors so that workers do not have to travel all the way down to ground level to buy lunch. Temporary water taps are installed for a similar reason.

• 33:35Speaker 02

  But the industry on the building site stands in stark contrast to the lives of others living in the same city. As the Depression deepens, a third of New Yorkers find themselves out of work. Many rely on government assistance, charity, and food banks. Others are evicted and forced to live in makeshift shanty towns. Against this backdrop, the Empire State Building keeps growing.

• 34:00Speaker 02

  By May 1931, just over a year after work began, it is finished. All told, its construction comes in a little under budget at around $41,900,000 in today's money. This skyscraper is now the tallest building in the world, and it's also an instant classic of design.

• 34:22Speaker 03

  What marks it as art deco is its verticality, right? Its direction. We don't think of buildings as having a direction, but they do. And that depends on how the architect expresses it. And really, in the 1930s, there were two ways to organize a tall building. You could organize it horizontally or vertically. And this is done with the window treatment. The Empire State Building is like the king of the vertical style because those windows go straight up. Then there are setbacks, of course, that interrupt the line a little bit. But basically, the windows continue above that. And they're paired windows. They're put together, and then they're framed in non-rusting alloy of nickel-chrome and steel, which is what the top of the Chrysler Building is made of and what the dirigible mooring mast at the top of the Empire State Building is made of. And that's the design.

• 35:02Speaker 02

  The lines of windows, as well as the simple limestone cladding, create a sleek look to the outside of the building. It is inside, in the lobby, where more traditional art deco detailing can be found.

• 35:14Speaker 03

  There's an entrance from Fifth Avenue. And that's a fairly small space that you enter there. And it's set up almost like a chapel. And at the far end, there's what you might take to be the altar of this chapel, which is a silhouette of the Empire State Building superimposed over an outline of New York State. Because after all, that's the Empire State, right?

• 35:40Speaker 02

  The lobby also features decorative aluminium medallions representing the various industries needed to make this building. A celestial mural dominates the ceiling, with the stars and planets represented as gears and wheels. It is a thoroughly modern design, inside and out.

• 36:02Speaker 02

  The Empire State Building is formally opened on the 1st of May 1931. In Washington, DC, President Hoover presses a button, and at the same moment, the lights blaze to life in the building's lobby. Al Smith takes a bevy of invited guests, including Governor and future President Franklin D. Roosevelt, on a tour of the tower, followed by a grand luncheon. In a speech, he declares the building "the tallest thing in the world today created by the hand of man." The panoramic view from the observation deck is ruined, however, by the bad weather, with landmarks like the Statue of Liberty temporarily lost in the fog.

• 36:43Speaker 02

  There is one notable absence from the party. The designer, William Lamb, is on a boat to France and listens to the opening ceremony on the captain's wireless. He is so opposed to these kinds of fancy celebrations that he and his wife have arranged to start their long-awaited holiday on the very day his creation finally opens. The Empire State Building has room for tens of thousands of occupants. But despite the publicity, business is initially slow.

• 37:15Speaker 03

  When it finally opened, we were in the depths of the Depression. The building did not rent out at all in those first years. What kept it going, apparently financially, was the dollar collected from every visitor to the observatory at the top. And by 1940, there had four-millionth visitor was recorded. When it first opened, the Empire State Building was derisively called "the empty State Building" and Al Smith's folly.

• 37:39Speaker 02

  It also fails to function as a mooring point for airships.

• 37:44Speaker 03

  What they'd forgotten about were 40 mile an hour updrafts at the top, the wind coming at you because you would step out of the dirigible. Remember, this is before the Hindenburg disaster. Dirigibles were a big deal. And you would walk down an open-air staircase, carrying your bags, and enter the tippy-top of the Empire State Building and then be whisked down to the streets of Manhattan. You know, this is modern transportation. But not with 40 mile an hour winds coming at you. So it was totally impractical.

• 38:12Speaker 02

  Only one attempt is ever made, in September 1931, to dock an airship at the top of the building. The poor pilot is forced to go around dozens of times because of the strong winds present at that altitude. The surrounding skyscrapers also make the landing attempt treacherous. And so, though airships will continue to offer a glamorous form of transportation until the Hindenburg disaster of 1937, the plan is abandoned and the mooring mast reduced to a largely decorative role.

• 38:45Speaker 02

  Yet despite these setbacks, the publicity the Empire State Building attracts as the world's tallest building means it quickly becomes the most recognizable element of the New York City skyline. This is especially so after the film King Kong is released in 1933. Images of the giant ape climbing the tower and then plunging down to his death cement its status as a cultural icon. By 1940, when the observation deck is visited by its four-millionth guest, it has become an essential tourist attraction. But then, America is drawn into the Second World War following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. And the Empire State Building does not emerge unscathed.

• 39:36Speaker 00

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• 40:34Speaker 02

  It is the 28th of July, 1945. Daniel Norden, an office worker, sits on the 80th floor of the Empire State Building. Though it is a Saturday, he and his boss, the manager of the Caterpillar Tractor Company, are at work. Bored, Daniel stretches his arms above his head and yawns, quickly smothering it with a hand and glancing across to his manager, Arthur. But the other man seems not to have noticed his inattention absorbed in the paperwork on his own desk. Daniel turns his attention to the window next to him, hoping for some distraction. On a normal summer's day, he would have a panoramic view over Manhattan.

• 41:15Speaker 02

  But today, he walked to work through a steady drizzle, and the city is still smothered in a thick gray fog. He can barely make out the outlines of the other skyscrapers that surround them. As he stares vacantly into the oppressive gloom, an almighty crash resounds through the building.

• 41:36Speaker 02

  At almost the same moment, he and Arthur are knocked violently from their chairs and thrown onto the carpeted floor.

• 41:46Speaker 02

  Though victory has been achieved against the Nazis in Europe, fighting continues in the Pacific, and Daniel's first instinct is that a Japanese bomber has struck the tower. But he barely has time to frame that thought before a vivid wall of flame washes up the outside of the windows, bathing the office in a fiery orange glow.

• 42:09Speaker 02

  Jerking back from the glass, Daniel scrabbles to his feet and rushes towards the office door, pulling Arthur up with him. He is reaching for the handle when it bursts open and a hysterical young woman tumbles into the room. Her face and arms are bloody, and the blouse of her uniform that identifies her as an elevator operator has entirely burnt away in several places. Through heaving sobs, she tells them that the corridor is an inferno. Their escape route is blocked.

• 42:40Speaker 02

  Daniel becomes aware that the floor under his feet is getting warm, even through his thick, sold shoes. The room is beginning to smell of aviation fuel. He turns to Arthur and claps his boss on the shoulder. "Art," he says, "I guess this is the end." Arthur is opening his mouth to reply when Daniel suddenly has an idea. Rushing to the supply closet, he tears it open and rifles through the contents until he finds what he is looking for: a 12-inch claw hammer. Tool in hand, he begins to pound frantically at the office's south wall, where it adjoins another office suite. Perhaps there is an escape that way.

• 43:24Speaker 02

  As the plaster splinters, he pulls chunks of it out with the hammer and then his bare hands. Coughing hard as the office fills with smoke, he is soon smashed a hole large enough to climb through. After pulling himself into the next room, he reaches back to help the young woman. Opening the door, he breathes a sigh of relief. The fire has not reached this far yet. He can see a clear route across the corridor to the fire stairwell in the middle of the building. Supporting the woman, he and Arthur hurry to the staircase and pull open the door. Below them, Daniel can hear dozens of people streaming downstairs. Sobs and groans drift up to him as he puts one hand on the banister and begins the descent

• 44:08Speaker 02

  away from the fire and to what he hopes is safety.

• 44:20Speaker 02

  Mere weeks before Japan surrenders and America declares victory, a military B-25 plane smashes into the Empire State Building between the 78th and 80th floors. The pilot had become disoriented in an unusually heavy fog. The plane crashes with such force that one engine is launched through the entirety of the building before plummeting into the street below. The fuel ignites instantly, and the fire burns through several stories. 14 people are killed, including all three crew members. But there are miracles that day as well. The blaze is extinguished within just 40 minutes.

• 45:02Speaker 02

  To this day, it is the highest structural fire to be brought under control by New York firefighters. An elevator operator, Betty Lou Oliver, is inside an elevator when the cables snap. She falls an astonishing 75 stories, but survives. And the building's structural integrity is not compromised. Most offices are open for business again on the Monday morning.

• 45:30Speaker 02

  The Empire State Building goes from strength to strength in the years that follow. By the end of the 1940s, every office is occupied. In 1950, work starts on adding a television antenna to the spire, extending its reach further into the clouds. And in 1969, it acts as the finish line for a transatlantic air race between London and New York, so firm is its position as the most recognizable building in the city. But in 1970, it finally loses the title it has held on to for nearly four decades.

• 46:05Speaker 03

  The Empire State Building kept its title through the Depression, because nobody was building, and then World War II. And when the war was over, when building began in New York, buildings tended to be much lower. There wasn't much building of very tall buildings. And so the Empire State Building hung on to its title longer than any other building, 35 years, twice as long as the Waldorf Building, and held its title more. But eventually, it had to happen, and it was the World Trade Center.

• 46:29Speaker 02

  The Twin Towers are just over 1,360 feet tall, just 100 feet higher than the Empire State Building. Apparently, the height is the brainchild of the head of the World Trade Center.

• 46:42Speaker 03

  And he said he knew that if we were going to do something in New York that was going to get noticed, it really had to be the biggest and the best, and that's why we went to the tallest. Now, that isn't public relations. I don't know what is. But that was very much in the thinking. And there is a story that somebody once said to him, "Well, so now the Empire State Building is only the second tallest building in the city, huh?" And he smiled and said, "No, it's the third, because there are two towers at the World Trade Center."

• 47:06Speaker 02

  Losing its title does little to diminish the Empire State Building's importance. In 1981, to mark its 50th anniversary, the mayor of New York declares an "Empire State Building Week." The skyscraper illuminates the night sky with a spectacular light show. And to round off the celebrations, it is designated an historic landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

• 47:34Speaker 02

  In the new millennium, little changes within the Empire State Building, apart from some restoration and refurbishment. The Art Deco lobby is recreated, its ceiling revealed once more after decades of being hidden by insulation tiles. But its status as an historic landmark prevents any drastic changes. After the horrific 9/11 attacks of 2001 that destroyed the towers of the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building briefly regains its title as the tallest building in New York, if not the world. But when the one World Trade Center opens a little over a decade later, it is once again surpassed. Perhaps the most dramatic moment in its recent history comes in 2008, when the building

• 48:19Speaker 02

  is stolen. The thieves are journalists from New York Daily News, who, during an investigation into mortgage fraud in the state, have uncovered how easy it is to register fraudulent deeds to properties. To draw attention to the issue, they register and obtain a document transferring ownership of the Empire State Building. One of those listed on the paperwork as a witness to the sale is Fay Ray, the actress who starred in King Kong all the way back in 1933. Having made their point and published their story, they transfer the deed back to its rightful owners the very next day.

• 48:58Speaker 02

  The Empire State Building is no longer the tallest building in the world. It has fallen all the way to 58th place, with the first-place title now held by Dubai's Burj Khalifa. In fact, today's New York skyline is dwarfed by those of cities in the Gulf States and the Far East, with China now home to five of the world's top 10 tallest towers. Yet, despite its relegation, the building remains iconic. It is the crowning achievement of the skyscraper construction craze of America in the 20s and 30s, a minimalist Art Deco masterpiece and a lasting symbol of New York City. For many tourists, a visit to the Big Apple is still considered incomplete without a

• 49:40Speaker 02

  trip to its observation decks to take in what is widely agreed to be the best view of the city. But even as the architecture around it continues to develop, the idea of the Empire State Building as truly belonging to New Yorkers, as a definition of their city, remains.

• 49:58Speaker 03

  We still think of New York as defined by skyscrapers. Big difference is that the skyscrapers going up to date are residential. They're not commercial. In some sense, I could feel that I have every right to be in the lobby of the Empire State Building and to go up the top. It's a public space. I mean, it's owned by somebody, and I have to pay money to do it, but it's a public space. The tall buildings now are on Billionaires Row, and I promise you, the billionaires don't want me anywhere near their lobby or going up to the top of their building. That, "Thank you, the door is closed." And that is a big change in how the city sort of sees itself. The Empire State Building is still, even without that title. It's not the tallest building in New York, never mind the world. Nobody cares. It's still the quintessential landmark of New York.

• 50:46Speaker 02

  Next time on Short History of, we'll bring you a short history of the peasants revolt.

• 50:53Speaker 01

  Life was defined by being subject to somebody else. And then when the great plague came along, the Black Death, it completely changed everything. At least, probably, half the population was wiped out. I mean, 50% of people died on certain... There was a 78% on one of the Durham Prory Mammoths. So the people are being wiped out. And for the people who were still alive, it provided an opportunity to change things. This is where the Great Revolt's seeds are laid.

• 51:31Speaker 02

  That's next time.

• 51:36Speaker 02

  You can listen to the next two episodes of Short History of right now, without waiting and without adverts, by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Just hit the link in the episode description or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to unlock more episodes today.

• 51:51Speaker 00

  Everyone's got a hard question about AI. Your job, your kids, where it's going. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way, because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claude.ai/spotify and keep thinking. That's claude.ai/spotify.