Here are 20 interesting Empire State Building facts.
1-5 Empire State Building Facts
1. The Empire State Building makes more money from tickets sales for its observation decks than it does from renting office space. – Source
2. After the Empire State Building opened in New York City in 1931, much of its office space went unrented. It was nicknamed the “Empty State Building” by New Yorkers and didn’t become profitable until 1950. – Source
3. In 1945 an airplane crashed into the Empire State Building, injuring elevator operator Betty Oliver. When rescuers attempted to lower her on an elevator, the cable snapped, plunging her 75 stories down. She survived the fall, and to this day holds the record for longest survived elevator fall. – Source
4. If the North Korea used its largest nuclear bomb on the Empire State Building, it wouldn’t even reach Central Park. – Source
5. The Empire State Building’s spire was originally designed to be a mooring mast for Zeppelin airships. – Source
6-10 Empire State Building Facts
6. In 1979, Elvita Adams jumped from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building in an attempted suicide, only to be blown back onto the 85th floor by a gust of wind. Her only injury was a broken hip. – Source
7. The Empire State Building has its own postcode. – Source
8. The CGI Empire State Building from Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” took 18 months to create. The real building only took 14 months. – Source
9. Mohawk Indians were instrumental in building many NYC bridges and skyscrapers, including the Empire State Building. – Source
10. The Empire State Building was built on time and under budget, a mammoth feat then and even by today’s standards. – Source
11-15 Empire State Building Facts
11. There is a smaller version of the Empire State Building built two years earlier in North Carolina called the Reynolds Building. – Source
12. Lawrence Wien, real estate tycoon and owner of the Empire State Building, ran an ad in The New York Times in May 1968 predicting that a commercial airliner was likely to fly into the World Trade Center towers. – Source
13. A missing stone in the facade of the Empire State Building serves as evidence of where a B-25 Bomber crashed into the building in 1945. – Source
14. In a stunt to draw attention to the flaws in the system, the New York Daily News created a series of documents convincing enough to make the New York city Office register transfer of the title of the Empire State building to Nelots Properties, LLC. They returned the property later. – Source
15. The staff of the Empire State Building sends an annual Father’s Day card to the staff of the Reynolds Building, a skyscraper in North Carolina on which the design of the Empire State Building was partially based. – Source
16-20 Empire State Building Facts
16. The building was officially opened on May 1, 1931, when President Herbert Hoover turned the lights on with a push of a button from Washington, D.C.
17. In order to build The Empire State Building, steel would arrive from Pennsylvania factory so quickly that workers would still feel the heat from it being molded.
18. In 1997, a gunman shot seven people on the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, killing one person and injuring 6 others. – Source
19. In 1934 at the height of the dust bowl, New York City streetlights were turned on at Midday. The thick haze obscured views of Central Park from the top of the Empire State Building, and a ship delayed its entry into the harbor because the captain had trouble seeing the Statue of Liberty. – Source
20. After Fay Wray’s death, the lights of the Empire State Building were turned off for 15 minutes in her memory. – Source
