Empire State Building

The most impressive building that I have ever visited is Empire State Building, the thing that made me feel impressed the most was how tall it is, because this building rises to 1.250 ft, it has 85 stories of commercial and office space representing 2.158.000 sq ft tower.

The Empire State Building was the first building to have more than 100 floors. It has 6.500 windows and 73 elevators. The building houses 1.000 businesses and has it own zip code (10118). As of 2007, approximately 21.000 employees work in the building each day, making the Empire State Building the second-largest single office complex in America after the Pentagon. The building was completed in a year and 45 days. The Empire State cost $ 40.948.900 to build.

The Empire State features an art deco design, typical of pre-World War II architecture in New York.The modernistic stainless steel canopies of the entrances on 33rd and 34th Streets lead to two story-high corridors around the elevator core, crossed by stainless steel and glass-enclosed bridges at the second-floor level. The elevator core contains 67 elevators.

In 1964, floodlights were added to illuminate the top of the building at night, in colors chosen to match seasonal and other events, such as St. Patrick's Day, Christmas, Independence Day and Bastille Day. After the eightieth birthday and subsequent death of Frank Sinatra, for example, the building was bathed in blue light to represent the singer's nickname "Ol' Blue Eyes". After the death of actress Fay Wray (King Kong) in late 2004, the building stood in complete darkness for 15 minutes. On June 4, 2002, the Empire State Building donned purple and gold (the royal colors of Queen Elizabeth II), in thanks for the United Kingdom playing the Star Spangled Banner during the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace on September 12, 2001 (a show of support after the September 11 Attacks).

The building’s art deco spire was originally designed to be a mooring mast and depot of dirigibles. The 102nd floor was originally a landing platform with a dirigible gangplank.