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Shannon Folmer
Prof.Russo/Prof.Roeckell
COR 390-05
October 22, 2014
The Empire State Building
Since the Empire State Building was completed in 1931, it has been an icon for New
York City. It is the image that comes to everyones mind and is a fixture of movies and media.
The former tallest building in the world stands at a whopping 1,250 feet tall, and is made of
57,000 tons of steel columns, and 62,000 cubic yards of concrete. The building has 6,400
windows, 67 elevators and over seven miles of elevator shafts. (Goedken 64) It dominates the
New York City skyline. 102 stories were built at a rate of 4.5 stories per day (Goedken 65).
Believe it or not it even was completed under budget. This art deco building was an architectural
feat for its time.
This remarkable building, surprisingly enough was born out of competition. In 1889 the
Eiffel Tower was constructed standing at 984 feet. Then in 1909 the Metropolitan Life Tower
was built, rising up 700 feet. Shortly after that in 1913 the Woolworth Building was completed
towering a whopping 792 feet. Not to be outdone the Manhattan Building was then constructed
in 1929 at coming in at 927 feet. (Rosenberg) To put it simply, the race was on to have the tallest
building in the world!
Former Vice President of General Motors John Jakob Raskob was determined to build a
skyscraper to rival the Chrysler building which was still being constructed at the time. In 1929
Raskob bought property at 34
th
street and Fifth Avenue; this is where the famous Waldorf-
Astoria Hotel was until they moved to Park Avenue. The property cost him and his partners
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roughly 16 million dollars. The original plan for the Empire State Building was for it to be 80
stories, it ended up being 102. The 22 floor difference is because plans for the building kept
getting changed as the Chrysler building was being built higher and higher. (Goedken 65)
To build something the size of the Empire State Building and in a big city like New York
required precise planning and a lot of man power. Raskob hired Shreve, Lamb and Harmon to be
the architects of this project. When they were hired they had promised to be able to complete the
building in eighteen months, however they had no equipment. Their rationale was, to build
something like this would present unusual issues and many challenges. They felt ordinary
construction equipment was not going to get the job done. Their proposal was to buy new
equipment that would be best suited for the type of job that they were going to be doing and to
sell it when they were done. They would credit Raskob the difference at the end of the job.
(Rosenberg)
The first step of construction was they had to tear down the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. To
tear down the Waldorf it took two shifts of 300 men each working day and night. Once they
leveled the building they had to dig down through the rock to make the foundation. (Rosenberg)
Since the Empire State Building was being built on a previously developed site they had
nowhere to store materials. So whatever materials were delivered had to be used and built that
day. They also used a railway system to push cars filled with materials around the construction
site.(Goedken 65) The bricks used on the building were dumped down a chute that led to a
hopper in the basement. The hopper was a container that tapered towards the bottom that allowed
for the controlled release of materials. When they needed bricks, they were dropped into a cart
and hoisted up to the level they were needed on. This eliminated the need to shut down streets
for brick delivery and proved to be much more efficient than using wheel barrows. (Rosenberg)
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On March 17, 1930 construction officially began with the building of the steel skeleton of
the building. It is made up of 210 steel columns. Often crowds gathered passing by and watched
the riveters work. They worked in teams of 4: the heater, the passer, the bucker-up and the
gunman. First the heater would put about 10 rivets into a firey forge and make them red hot.
From there using a pair of tongs he would toss them over to the catcher who was often anywhere
from 50-75 feet away. The catcher would catch the rivets in a bucket. He would take each rivet
out of the bucket while they were still hot with tongs and place them into each of the holes on the
steel beam. The bucker up supported the rivet and the gunman would come over and knock it
into place with a rivet hammer that was powered by compressed air. Since the rivet was hot,
hammering it into place would have it fuse in with the steel beam. (Rosenberg)
While the outside of the Empire State Building was constructed electricians and
plumbers were working on the inside. The whole project would require 60 trades. It was vital
that each trade worked in a timely fashion. Things went so smoothly that fourteen floors were
put up in a matter of 2 weeks. Their next hurdle was to put in elevators. Their problem: the
building was estimated to have about 15,000 people in it. That would mean an elevator would
stop very frequently. So to keep that from happening there were 58 passenger elevators put in.
They were split up among seven different sections or banks. For example elevator bank A only
went from floors 3-7 but elevator bank B serviced floors 7-18. These elevators have the ability to
move 1,200 feet per minute. (Rosenberg)
7 million man hours later, the Empire State Building was completed. One year and 45
days from the start of construction. That was well under their eighteen month window. Also they
had a budget of 50 million and spent roughly 41 million on the building. This was largely in part
to the Great Depression. It provided a workforce of about 4,000 men and drastically reduced the
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cost of building. In addition to this, New York City had the warmest winter on record. This
helped construction to move along much more smoothly. Although this beautiful building was
built in record time and went without a hitch there was a problem. The building opened in the
heart of the depression. It featured 21,000 square feet of rentable office space however, no one
could afford to rent. It had been nicknamed The Empty State Building with 56 unoccupied
floors in 1933. In the late 1940s following World War II, the building finally reached full
occupancy levels. (Goedken 65)
Bizarrely enough as things were looking up, on a foggy Saturday morning on July 28
th
,
1945 at 9:49am a B-25 bomber crashed into the 78
th
and 79
th
floor. The plane was piloted by
Lieutenant Colonel Smith, his flight started in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The purpose of this
flight wad so he could become familiar with the B-25 aircraft. He was accustomed to the B-17
that he flew 34 combat missions in during World War II. He flew to Bedford, Massachusetts to
spend time with family. Two days later he was looking to fly to Newark. When he radioed air
traffic control they told him to land in La Guardia not Newark. As Smith neared La Guardia field
he radioed air traffic control again asking for clearance to go to Newark. There are conflicting
stories about whether he was given clearance or not. Whatever the case he chose to go on to
Newark stating that he was familiar of the danger areas. Air traffic control warned him that the
fog was too dense and that they were not able to see the top of the Empire State Building. Smith
hit the building at 9:49 am leaving a gaping hole in the 78
th
and 79
th
floors. One of the bombers
engines shot through the building exited on the 33
rd
street side and slammed into the building
across the street. A total of fourteen people were killed and 36 were injured. People say that there
is still a crack visible beneath the 79
th
floor windows that only the window washers can see.
(Gustaitis)
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The Empire State Building is the defining structure of New York City. It attracts
thousands of tourists a year. It has a lot of history and innovation behind it. The most astounding
thing of all is how fast it was constructed and the fact that it came in under budget. I wanted to
write my paper on it because it is such a famous and widely recognized building around the
world. So as a New Yorker I almost felt a little ashamed that I didnt know much about it. It was
definitely interesting to read about. The fact that it was built during the depression is really
interesting to me because I would think all building halted because of costs. But the depression
actually helped move it along. It is actually the reason why it went so smoothly.
















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Works Cited
Goedken, Anne K. "The Empire State Building: An Innovative Skyscraper." Buildings 1 July
2006: 64. Print.
Gustaitis, Joesph. "Fire in the Sky." American History 1 Dec. 2000: 40-44. Print.
Rosenberg, Jennifer. "The Empire State Building." History1900s.about.com. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.