Country 106.5 WYRK Radio » Empire State Building

Empire State Building Modeled After Buffalo Building

Dale Mussen — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:00:04 +0000

Interesting that the replacement for the World Trade Center sometimes called the Freedom Tower became the tallest building in New York City yesterday as construction continues. It’s going up at a rate of one story a week and is now taller than the Empire State Building.

Today is the day in 1931 that the Empire State Building was officially dedicated when President Herbert Hoover turned on a switch at the White House that turned on the building’s lights.

Empire State Building – Dale's Daily Data

Dale Mussen — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:00:16 +0000

For 41 years it held the title of the world’s tallest building. At 102 stories and 1250 feet high – add another 200 feet if you include the lightning rod on top – the Empire State Building brought pride and sense of hope to New York City and to the country during the Depression when many were unemployed and prospects for getting a job looked bleak. Construction of the building itself was symbolic because it employed so many people - as many as 34-hundred workers. And it went up quickly. It took just over a year to build and under budget at a cost of 40-million dollars. There were some periods during construction when it went up an incredible four and a half stories a week.

The idea for the Empire State Building began as a competition between Walter Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation and John Jakob Raskob of General Motors, to see who could build the tallest building. Chrysler had already begun work on the famous Chrysler Building. In response Raskob put together a group of investors to raise the money to get his building up.

Lightning Strikes The Empire State Building Three Times! [Video]

Brett Alan — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:47:49 +0000

Chad Brock once sang a song called "Lightning Does The Work." Here's the proof of what lightning can do.

There was a major thunderstorm that raged through New York City on Tuesday night. The rain came pouring down and the thunder slammed loudly throughout the night.

A lot of dogs were hiding under beds, children were scared, and adults were pretending not to be. The storm was so crazy that New York's most famous landmark, The Empire State Building, was struck by lightning at least three times -- and even cooler than that, it was caught on video!

Watch it happen, along with nine more lightning-strike videos of famous buildings after the jump.