The Empire State Building is having its 75th anniversary, and we were reminded of that by a wonderful in depth treatment in the New York Times - history, photos, video, audio slide show and the story of Lewis Hines, who took extraordinary photographs of the daredevils who built it, recounting the urban myths and legends that surround the building. Since it was for a long time and now is again the tallest building in the city, it has become New York City's lighthouse. It has an enormous pull to the eye if you are anywhere in the city from which it can be seen, rising above the rest. From street level nearby, it doesn't look like much and the neighborhood in which it is set is not terribly remarkable. When you can see it from a distance, particularly at night, the structure reveals itself, and the interior, with a very art deco feel, gives a strong feeling of those brash days when it was built...
6 comments:
Hi,
The Empire State Building has always been the symbol of New York for me. It is always unbelievable and almost seems like an alien creation when seen from the train as you are approaching the city. Long may it stand!
Chris
happy anniversary!! omedeto gozaimasu!
Great view of the whole building
This is still one of my favourite buildings in New York and you really did it justice with this photo!
I agree Eric....really beautiful. Now you know why King Kong went for this one!
Thanks guys. I hope you all had a chance to take a look at the Times link, wonderful old photos of the workers putting up the building, and writers and others doing pieces on it, and the history over the years. Really extraordinary, doubt we will ever have it's like again built here. They say it is made very strongly, much more steel used than they do nowadays...
L
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