Modern City · event 6 of 15

1 May 1931

The Empire State Building opens. Built in 410 days, and so poorly let through the Depression that New Yorkers call it the Empty State Building. It does not turn a profit until 1950, and holds the height record for forty years.

The Modern City era

  1. 27 October 1904
  2. 25 March 1911
  3. 1916
  4. 1920
  5. 23 October 1929
  6. 1 May 1931
  7. 1934
  8. 28 June 1969
  9. 1969
  10. 4 April 1973
  11. 30 October 1975
  12. 11 September 2001
  13. 29 October 2012
  14. 1 January 2017
  15. 1 March 2020

See the full timeline or read the history of New York.