Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is located on New York's Fifth Avenue and it also happens to be the city's tallest skyscraper but the second tallest in the United States. Its height being at 1,453 feet. The building was completed in 1931 the consruction of the building first started in 1929. The Empire State Building was once the world's tallest building from 1931 to 1972. The building officially opened on May 1, 1931 with President Herbert Hoover who turned on the building's lights with a simple push of a button from Washington, D.C.. The building's construction involved 3,400 workers and according to official accounts only five workers died during its construction.

The building contains 102 floors but only 85 of them are actual commercial and office spaces. The observation deck can be found on the 86th floor and it is one of the most popular outdoor observation decks in the world. There have been over 110 million people who have visited the deck. The deck has an outstanding 360-degree view of the city.

Some fun facts about the Empire State Building:

• In the video game Super Monkey Ball 2, the Empire State Building can be seen in the background of World 4 (Inside the Whale)


• On The Discovery Channel show Mythbusters, Adam and Jaime tested the urban myth "If you drop a penny off the top of the Empire State Building, by the time the penny hits ground level, it is going fast enough to inflict leathal injury or a crater into the sidewalk."

Click here to check out an image of the building at night.