![]() ![]() But Raskob, crucially, had been smart about the stock market. The "race to the sky" was a welcome distraction. They became heads of a consortium of investors, Empire State Inc. "They were both workaholics, and after the loss of the election they found themselves unemployed," Tauranac said. Six other super-skyscrapers were on the drawing board when the stock market crashed in October 1929 - bringing most construction to a screeching halt. Only the Empire State Building weathered the disaster.Ī big part of it, Tauranac said, had to do with the two guys at the center of the project. Al Smith, former New York governor and failed presidential candidate, and John J. Raskob, treasurer and a vice president of GM - who also happened to be Smith's campaign manager - were looking for something to do. On May 27, 1930, the Chrysler became the World's Tallest Building - for all of 11 months. The finale was a nail-biter. Just as 40 Wall Street was about to walk away with the prize, a 125-foot spire, assembled in secret, poked out of the top of the Chrysler Building, suddenly raising the height to 1,046 feet. ![]() Most famously, the Chrysler Building and 40 Wall Street were neck-and-neck in 1930: each builder, in response to the other, kept adding floors as construction progressed, while the public breathlessly speculated on who would "win." Rankings: These are the best NJ high schools as ranked by U.S News and World Reportīack in the 1920s, a "race to the sky," fueled by Jazz Age optimism and ready money, pitted financiers against each other in a kind of architectural Kentucky Derby. Everyone wanted to build the World's Tallest Building. J&J: Appeals court overturns $117 million Johnson & Johnson baby powder verdict 'Selfishness and irresponsibility': Ire as historic local art piece is moved to mayor's office The speed at which it was built - and the fact that it was built at all - was partly an accident of timing. "We were building boldly, fearlessly, even in the darkest days of the Depression." "It was a symbol of American industry to build things big, and to build them quick," Tuttle said. "They put up a fence around the site, so people would look down into the hole in the ground, even before they started erecting," Tauranac said. It always was. People were going ape for the world's most famous skyscraper even before it opened in 1931, even before King Kong, in 1933, climbed to the 102nd story with Fay Wray screaming in his giant mitt.ĭuring its 13½ months of construction, in 1930 and '31, crowds would gather at the site to watch the steam shovels dig and the jackhammers chatter, to see the mammoth structure rise at the rate - at one point - of one story per day, to watch the brawny steeplejacks on 40-story girders walk nonchalantly across the sky like Greek gods.Īt a time when the entire country was paralyzed by fear, when all progress had come to a standstill, this was an object lesson in hope. "There's no better time than now, with the capacity controls in place, the low crowds," he said. The place has been COVID-proofed, with timed admissions, hand-sanitizing stations, new air circulation systems and more. 28 of 2019, you do not know the Empire State Building," said Jean-Yves Ghazi, president of the building's observatory. ![]()
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