Built in 410 days during the Depression and empty for years afterwards. The 86th-floor deck is open air, which is what the newer decks in Midtown are not.
410 days
Ground was broken in March 1930 and the building was finished in April 1931 — one year and forty-five days, at a rate that peaked at four and a half floors a week. The steel came from Pittsburgh, and the schedule was so tight that beams were still warm from the mill when they were riveted into place. Five workers died, which for the era and the scale was considered a good record.
It was a race. Walter Chrysler was building his tower at the same time, and the two projects traded the title of world’s tallest between them; Chrysler won it briefly by assembling a spire in secret inside the building and raising it through the roof. The Empire State then took it and held it for forty years.
Then the Depression finished the job it had started. The building opened barely a third let, and stayed so empty through the 1930s that New Yorkers called it the Empty State Building. It did not turn a profit until 1950.
Which ticket
86th floor is the one you want, and it is the one in every photograph. It is an open-air deck with the original 1931 railings, wind, noise and all — you are outside, at 1,050 feet, with the city audible below you. That openness is the reason to choose this building over the newer decks, all of which put you behind glass.
102nd floor adds a small enclosed circular room 200 feet higher, reached by a second lift. It is glassed in and it is tight. The extra height gains you less than the price suggests. If the day is hazy, skip it; if it is exceptionally clear and you are already committed to the cost, it is a genuine improvement.
Express Pass roughly doubles the ticket price and takes you past the queues. At the busiest hours — late afternoon on a summer weekend — that can save well over an hour, and at nine in the morning it saves nothing at all.
When to go
Two good windows. First thing, at nine, when the queue has not built and the light is clean from the east. Or the last hour before closing, after eleven at night, which is the quietest the building gets and the best the city looks.
The worst time is sunset, which is what everyone tries to book. The queue for the sunset slot runs long, the deck is full, and you spend it shoulder to shoulder at the railing.
The second-floor museum
Included in every ticket, and most people rush past it to get to the lift. It covers the construction with original photographs, the King Kong business, and a good section on the 1945 accident when a B-25 bomber lost in fog flew into the 79th floor, killing fourteen people. The building was open for business two days later.
The lights
The tower lighting changes nightly for holidays, causes and the occasional sports result, and the schedule is published on the building’s own site. If a colour scheme puzzles you from the street, that is where the answer is.
More Skyscrapers & Views
Chrysler Building
The best Art Deco tower in the world, and you cannot go up it. The lobby is open, the crown is not, and it is still worth the detour.
Top of the Rock
The deck to pick if you are only doing one, for the simple reason that the Empire State Building is in the photograph rather than under your feet.
One World Observatory
The tallest building in the western hemisphere, at a height of 1,776 feet chosen for the year rather than the engineering. Fully enclosed, with a harbour view no other deck gets.