Empire State Building | Can’t Sleep? 1,250 Feet Of History

The Empire State Building has spent nearly a century towering over Manhattan and becoming one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world. This episode explores the building’s history, distinctive Art Deco architecture, interior spaces, observation decks, and the features that have made it such an enduring part of New York City. Along the way, you’ll hear about its design, changing uses, famous lights, appearances in popular culture, and what visitors can find more than a thousand feet above the streets of Manhattan.It’s steady and consistent, with no whispering and no sudden changes, just enough to give your mind something to follow as you wind down. Happy sleeping!
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Transcript

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast, Where I help you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster, And today's episode is about the Empire State Building. This sponsored episode is for Ryan, Age 5, From Maryland. The Empire State Building is a 102-story super-tall skyscraper in the Midtown South neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. The building was designed in the Art Deco style by Shreve, Lamb, And Harmon, And constructed between 1930 and 1931. Its name is derived from Empire State, The nickname of New York State. The building has a roof height of 1, 250 feet, Or 380 meters, And stands a total of 1, 454 feet, Or 143. 2 meters, Tall, Including its antenna. As of 2025, The building is the 8th tallest building in New York City, The 10th tallest completed skyscraper in the United States, And the 59th tallest completed skyscraper in the world. The site of the Empire State Building 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 15 times until it was ensured to be the world's tallest building. Construction started on March 17, 1930, And the building opened 13 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 4 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 international cultural icon. It has been featured in more than 250 television series and films since the film King Kong was released in 1933. The building's size has been used as a standard of reference to describe 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. The Empire State Building is located on the west side of Fifth Avenue, Between 33rd Street to the south and 34th Street to the north, In the Midtown-South neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Tenants enter the building through the Art Deco lobby, Located at 350 5th Avenue. Visitors to the observatories use an entrance at 20 West 34th Street. Prior to August 2018, Visitors entered through the 5th Avenue lobby. Although physically located in South Midtown, A mixed residential and commercial area, The building is so large that it was assigned its own zip code, 10118. As of 2012, It is one of 43 buildings in New York City that have their own zip codes. The Empire State Building was designed by Shreve, Lamb, And Harmon in the Art Deco style. The Empire State Building is 1, 250 feet tall, To its 102nd floor, Or 1, 453 feet 8 plus 9 sixteenths inches, Including its 203-foot pinnacle. It was the first building in the world to be more than 100 stories tall, Though only the lowest 86 stories are usable. The first through 85th floors contain 2. 158 million square feet of commercial and office space, While the 86th floor contains an observatory. The remaining 16 stories are part of the spire, Which is capped by an observatory on the 102nd floor. The spire does not contain any intermediate levels and is used mostly for mechanical purposes. Atop the 102nd story is the 203-foot or 61. 9-meter pinnacle, Much of which is covered by broadcast antennas and surmounted with a lightning rod. The Empire State Building has a symmetrical massing because of its large lot and relatively short base. Its articulation consists of three horizontal sections, A base, Shaft, And capital, Similar to the components of a column. The five-story base occupies the entire lot, While the 81-story shaft above it is set back sharply from the base. The setback above the fifth story is 60 feet or 18 meters deep on all sides. There are also setbacks at the 21st, 25th, 30th, 72nd, 81st, And 85th stories. Positioning these floors away from the noisy streets below. The setbacks correspond to the tops of elevator shafts, Allowing interior spaces to be at most 28 feet or 8. 5 meters deep. The Empire State Building's Art Deco design is typical of pre-World War II architecture in New York City. The facade is clad in Indiana limestone panels made by the Indiana Limestone Company and sourced from a quarry in South Central Indiana. The panels give the building its signature blonde color. According to official fact sheets, The façade uses 20, 000 cubic feet or 5, 700 cubic meters of limestone and granite, 10 million bricks, And 730 short tons of aluminum and stainless steel. The building also contains 6, 514 windows. The decorative features in the façade are largely geometric, In contrast with earlier buildings, Whose decorations often were intended to represent a specific narrative. The main entrance, Composed of three sets of metal doors, Is at the center of the facade's 5th Avenue elevation, 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. 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. The storefronts on the first floor contain aluminum frame doors and windows within a black granite cladding. 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. 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. The bays are separated by alternating narrow and wide piers, The inclusion of which may have been influenced by the design of the contemporary daily news building. The windows in each bay are separated by vertical nickel-chrome steel mullions and connected by horizontal aluminum spandrels between each floor. The windows are placed within stainless steel frames, Which saved money by eliminating the need to apply a stone finish around the windows. In addition, The use of aluminum spandrels obviated the need for cross-bonding, Which would have been required if stone had been used instead. The building was originally equipped with wide 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. These were later swapped for four Freedom Lights in 1956. In February 1964, Floodlights were added on the 72nd floor to illuminate the top of the building at night, So the building could be seen from the World Fair later that year. The lights were shut off from November 1973 to July 1974 because of the energy crisis at the time. In 1976, The businessman Douglas Lee suggested that Wine and Helmsley install 204 metal halide lights, Which were four times as bright as the 1, 000 incandescent lights they were to replace. New red, White, And blue metal halide lights were installed in time for the country's bicentennial that July. After the Bicentennial, Helmsley retained the new lights due to the reduced maintenance cost, About $116 a year. Since October 12, 1977, The spire has been lit in colors chosen to match seasonal events and holidays. In 2012, The building's 400 metal halide lamps and floodlights were replaced with 1, 200 LED fixtures, Increasing the available colors from 9 to over 16 million. The computer-controlled system allows the building to be illuminated in ways that were unable to be done previously with plastic gels. According to the official fact sheets, The Empire State Building weighs 365, 000 short tons, And has an internal volume of 37 million cubic feet, Or 1 million cubic meters. The interior required 1, 172 miles of elevator cable and 2 million feet of electrical wires. It has a total floor area of 2, 768, 591 square feet. And each of the floors and the base cover 2 acres. This gives the building capacity for 20, 000 tenants and 15, 000 visitors. The riveted steel frame of the building was originally designed to handle all of the building's gravitational stresses and wind loads. 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 versus the Willis Tower's 33 pounds per square foot and the John Hancock Center's 26 pounds per square foot. 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. Utilities are grouped in a central shaft. On the 6th through 86th stories, The central shaft is surrounded by a main corridor on all four sides. Per the final specifications of the building, The corridor is surrounded in turn by office space 28 feet or 8. 5 meters deep. Maximizing office space at a time before air conditioning became commonplace. 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. The relative dearth of stone in the Empire State Building allows for more space overall, With a 1 to 200 stone to building ratio compared to a 1 to 50 ratio in similar buildings. The original main lobby is accessed from Fifth Avenue, On the building's east side, And is the only place in the building where the design contains narrative motifs. It 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. The lobby contains two tiers of marble, A wainscoting of darker marble topped by lighter marble. There is a pattern of zigzagging terrazzo styles on the lobby floor, Which leads from east to west. To the north and south are storefronts, Which are flanked by tubes of dark rounded marble and topped by a vertical band of grooves set into the marble. The 80th, 86th, And 102nd floors contain observatories. The latter two observatories saw a combined average of 4 million visitors per year in 2010. 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 Woolworths Building, Despite being more expensive. Though most tickets allow visitors to go to the 86th floor, An additional fee is charged for access to the 102nd floor. The 86-floor observatory contains both an enclosed viewing gallery and an open-air outdoor viewing area, 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. The 102nd floor was again redesigned in a project that was completed in 2019, Allowing the windows to be extended from floor to ceiling and widening the space and the observatory overall. 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. An interactive multimedia museum with multiple hands-on exhibitions about the building's history was added during this project. The design of the 10, 000 square foot observatory experience was inspired by the plans and designs of the original Empire State Building. 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 were 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. In 2016, New York City's official tourism website made note of only three lines, The security check line, The ticket purchase line, And the second elevator line. Following renovations completed in 2019, Designed to streamline queuing and reduce wait times, Guests entered from a single entrance on 34th Street, Where they make their way through 10, 000 square foot 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. 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. In early 1994, A motion simulator attraction was built on the second floor as a complement to the observation deck. The original cinematic presentation lasted approximately 25 minutes, While the simulation was about 8 minutes. 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. An updated version debuted in mid-2002, Featuring actor Kevin Bacon as the pilot, With the new flight also going haywire. This new version served a more informative goal, As opposed to the old version's main purpose of entertainment. The simulator received mixed reviews, With assessments of the ride ranging from great to satisfactory to corny. The final stage of the building was the installation of a hollow mast, A 158 foot or 48 meter steel shaft fitted with elevators and utilities above the 86th floor. The spire of the Empire State Building was originally intended to serve as a mooring mast for zeppelins and other airships. Although the plan was abandoned when it was determined that high winds would make that impossible. At the top would be a conical roof and the 102nd floor docking station. Inside, The elevators would ascend 167 feet or 51 meters from the 86th floor ticket offices to a 33 foot wide 101st floor waiting room. From there, Stairs would lead to the 102nd floor, Where passengers would enter the airships. The airships would have been moored to the spire at the equivalent of the building's 106th floor. As constructed, The mast contains four rectangular tiers topped by a cylindrical shaft with a conical pinnacle. On the 102nd, Formerly 101st floor, There is a door with stairs ascending to a 103rd, Formerly 102nd floor. This top level, Originally planned to be the airship docking station, Now contains electrical equipment and features an exterior balcony. The floor is inaccessible to the public, But celebrities and dignitaries may be given permission to take pictures there. A set of stairs and a ladder ascend to the spire and are used by maintenance workers. The MAST's 480 windows were all replaced in 2015. The MAST serves as the base of the building's broadcasting antenna. Inflatable objects have sometimes been mounted to the spire for promotional purposes. For example, A King Kong balloon was attached to the spire in 1983 to mark the 50th anniversary of the character's introduction, And an inflatable dragon was placed on the spire in 2024 to promote the TV series House of Dragons. 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. In 1934, RCA was joined by Edwin Howard Armstrong in a cooperative venture to test his FM system from the building's antenna. The setup, Which entailed the installation of the world's first FM transmitter, Continued only until October of the next year, Due to disputes between RCA and Armstrong. Specifically, NBC wanted to install more TV equipment in the room where Armstrong's transmitter was located. 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 a commercial station, WNBT, Channel 1, Now WNBC, Channel 4. NBC's FM station, W2XTG, Began transmitting from the antenna in 1940. NBC retained exclusive use of the top of the building until 1950, When the Federal Communications Commission, FCC, Ordered the exclusive deal to be terminated. Other television broadcasters would later join RCA at the building on the 81st through 83rd floors, Often along with sister FM stations. Construction of a dedicated broadcast tower began on July 27, 1950, With TV and FM transmission starting in 1951. The 200-foot, 60-meter broadcast tower was completed in 1953. From 1951, Six broadcasters agreed to pay a combined $600, 000 per year for the use of the antenna. In 1965, A separate set of FM antennae was constructed ringing the 103rd floor observation area to act as a master antenna. 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. In 2013, Time Magazine noted that the Empire State Building seems to completely embody the city it has become synonymous with. The historian John Tarnak called it, The 20th century New York building, Despite the existence of taller and more modernist buildings. The Empire State Building has been hailed as an example of a wonder of the world due to the massive effort expended during construction. 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. The Empire State Building run-up, A foot race from ground level to the 86th floor observation deck, Has been held annually since 1978. The record time is 9 minutes and 33 seconds, Achieved by Australian professional cyclist Paul Craig in 2003, At a climbing rate of 6, 593 feet per hour.

Reviews

I have been to the top of the Empire State Building a long long time ago (1988 or 89). It left a big impression on me, for sure! Thank you, Benjamin for sharing all this info about the once tallest building in the world!

A tall story from the civil past, a good topical listen Ben. Cheers again