An Empire State of mind

The Empire State Building opened to the public in May 1931.  Built on what was originally a tract of farmland, and then the site of several Astor family mansions, construction of the Empire State Building was completed in only 1 year and 45 days.  

Over 110 million people have since visited the Empire State Building in person, and the iconic symbol of New York has also appeared in over 250 feature films.  

The top of the building was originally designed as a zeppelin mooring station, but now most of New York’s FM radio & TV stations broadcast their signals from there.  

 

Only recently surpassed by One World Trade Center ("The Freedom Tower") as NY's tallest building, the Empire State Building's management takes more money from selling tickets to the building's 2 observation decks than it does renting out office space to its more than 1,000 business tenants.

But it seems that not everyone is content to just line up and ride the 73 elevators.  In 1933, the 25-foot-tall King Kong scaled the outside of the Empire State Building in no time flat (though admittedly things didn’t end too well for him).

Four years later, a 49-year old farmer from Vermont became the first officially-sanctioned person to climb inside the building to the very top.  He did it in an impressive 36 minutes.  

But it wasn’t until 2003 that Australian professional racing cyclist Paul Crake set the record for The Empire State Building Run-up, the annual foot race from the lobby to the 86^th floor observation deck.  Crake completed the 1576-step climb in 9 minutes 33 seconds, becoming the first athlete ever to complete the race in less than 10 minutes.

And did you know that the odds of being struck by lightning are 576,000 to 1? And yet lightning strikes the Empire State Building at least 25 times a year. 

Dare I ask what happens when the Empire strikes back?  Sorry (not sorry).