Empire State Building
Of course New York could be called a capital of the world; full of symbols and features that make it a unique city, easily recognizable with its many symbols.
Its skyline is certainly one of a special kind, original in many aspects, and it is in this fantastic skyline that we find the most representative building of New York, perhaps the most beautiful in the world: The Empire State Building.
Built in 1931, extraordinarily architecture, it has always been a symbol of the golden age of Manhattan, of American cinema and culture.
The fact of being the most representative building in the city has given it the privilege of being baptized the ‘imperial’ building par excellence. Shortly after the inauguration, however, it began to be nicknamed the Empty State Building, as the aftermath of the Great Depression closed many of the companies that occupied it, leaving entire floors empty.
The inauguration took place at a distance and “symbolically” from the White House in Washington where President Herbert Hoover on May 1, 1931, pressed a simple switch that illuminated the building.
The main purpose of the project’s promoter, John J. Raskob, founder of General Motors, was to build a building that exceeded 318.9 meters of the nearby Chrysler Building because the competition was fiercely.
It was the first building to exceed 100 floors, 102 to be exactly. Twice it became the tallest building in New York. When the Twin Towers collapsed he gained the throne again but was recently overthrown, with the construction of the One World Trade Center.
The architectural style of the Empire State Building is inspired by Art Deco: legend has it that the shape of the building was inspired by a pencil.
Initially, the roof of the building was to be used as a landing platform for airships. Obviously the movement of the structure made the landing base very unsuitable. The roof was then equipped with an antenna.
The Empire State Observatory, on the 89th floor, is the most visited in the world, with over 110 million people.
Thanks to the powerful headlights installed in 1964, the Empire State lights up, at certain times, with specific lights of a different color. Green during St Patrick’s Day (a version inaugurated on March 17, 1930), red and gold in honor of the World Cup won by Spain, yellow for the release of the Simpsons movie or lights out to honor the disappearance, in 2004, by Fay Wray, the girl from the movie King Kong, undoubtedly the icon that will accompany the building forever.
One of the most well-known New York curiosities is that of the Run Up, the running race that has been held inside the building since 1978, with a course that measures over a kilometer, from the underground to the eighty-sixth floor.
This New York symbol is also featured in numerous movie scenes.
Many scenes, programs, music videos in which the Empire appears: we can mention King Kong, and the iconic image of the gorilla on top of the building, Harry meets Sally, Me and Annie, Kramer vs. Kramer.