Happy 80th Birthday Empire State Building

I remember my first visit to the Empire State Building (ESB), that day I visited the World Trade Center and the ESB.  My son was 6 or 7 at the time and I remember he and I looking down at something that appeared to be moving below us, it was a ...HELICOPTER!

The ESB, the world’s most famous office building, celebrates its 80th anniversary today, May 1st. Soaring 1,454 feet above Midtown Manhattan, ESB has served as one of the most recognizable and beloved attractions not only in the Big Apple but across the country. The building has accomplished many milestones over the last 80 years, and today it stands tall as a 21st Century icon. The Empire State Building through the years:

January 2011: ESB became New York City’s largest commercial purchaser of 100% renewable energy.

December 2010: Launched a newly designed www.esbnyc.com to provide global, instant digital access, as well as new social media channels with the creation of ESB Facebook and Twitter pages.

February 1994: The first Valentine’s Day wedding event was held. To date, over 230 couples have been officially married at ESB as part of this annual program.

May 1981: The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission declared ESB a landmark.

February 1978: The first ESB Run-Up took place. At this annual event, hundreds of athletes from around the world race a total of 1,576 steps to the 86th Floor Observatory.

1966: The manually operated high-speed elevators on the first 80 floors of the building were replaced with automatic elevators.

June 1951: WNBT became the first media outlet to begin regular broadcasts from the new transmitting tower atop ESB.

May 1, 1931: President Herbert Hoover pressed a button in Washington, D.C. to officially open ESB.

March 1930: Construction of the building began. Framework rose at a rate of 4 1/2 stories per week and was completed in an astounding 410 days.

Interesting ESB Facts:

• ESB took only one year and 45 days to build, or 7 million man-hours, a record to this day for a skyscraper of its height.
• ESB is the tallest building in New York at exactly 1,454 feet, 8 9/166 inches to the top of its lightening rod/antenna.
• The exterior of the Empire State Building is composed of 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone and granite, 10,000,000 bricks and 730 tons of aluminum and stainless steel.
• On the clearest of days, visibility from the Observatory is 80 miles, with five states in view: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
• ESB has been featured in some of the most famous movies, including “King Kong,” “An Affair to Remember,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.”

[Via:  esbnyc.com]