The Empire State Building

Short History Of...

This episode of 'Short History Of...' explores the iconic Empire State Building, tracing its origins from farmland owned by the Astor family

Key takeaways

• The Empire State Building was built during a competitive era of skyscraper construction in New York City, symbolizing American ambition and technological progress.
• Its design reflects Art Deco aesthetics, emphasizing verticality and minimalism, making it an architectural masterpiece.

Main topics

• History of the Astor family and land ownership in Midtown Manhattan
• Technological innovations enabling skyscraper construction (steel cage, elevators)

Notable quotes

"Where could be more fitting for this giant ape's final battle than the top of the world's tallest building?"

Conclusion

Though no longer the tallest structure in New York or the world, the Empire

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:02) It's the 25th of March, 1933, a typically sunny afternoon in Los Angeles, California. A young boy named Ray Harryhausen stands open-mouthed before Groman's Chinese Theatre, a decadent movie palace on Hollywood Boulevard. As crowds of tourists mill about, he shuffles along open-mouthed at the pagoda-shaped roof and roaring stone lions guarding the theatre's entrance. His mother clutches the tickets they have won to be here tonight. And he follows closely behind with his aunt, passing through the swinging golden doors and into a different world. The foyer is filled with the profusion of hyper-realistic fake bushes. In the midst of the scene, framed by the foliage, an enormous gorilla hunkers down. Ray claps a hand to his mouth when, with a hiss of compressed air, the animatronic creature slowly blinks and opens its mouth wide, showing a wicked set of yellowing teeth. He had no idea that one of the models used in the film would be on display. Speaker 3 (1:16) Ray's Speaker 1 (1:17) mother ushers him past the creature and into the cozy darkness of the cinema. He settles back into the plush velvet seats, eagerly anticipating the start of the film. Speaker 1 (1:28) But when the deep red curtains on either side of the stage slowly open, instead of the projector starting up, footlights flare to light, illuminating a troop of people in African dress on the stage. Some start to sing, while others begin a whirling dance, moving hypnotically around the stage. Suddenly, Ray's mother tugs at his sleeve and points upwards. Trapezes have been suspended from the ceiling, and as he watches, a pair of dancers take flight, sailing high over the audience's heads and somersaulting in midair. The crowd applauds as the performance comes to an end, and then, at last, the lights dim. In the darkness, Ray can hear his own heart hammering in anticipation as the projector whirs to life. Speaker 1 (2:25) The theme music swells, and the words, Kong, the eighth wonder of the world, appear on the enormous screen. Ray can barely breathe through his excitement. Leaning back in his seat, he falls under the film's spell. Ninety minutes later, the story is reaching its climax. Ray nervously digs his fingers into the soft armrest of his chair as he watches King Kong scaling an enormous skyscraper. He recognizes it as New York City's newest landmark, the Empire State Building. The soaring vertical lines of windows on its facade fly past as the monster climbs, navigating the building's stepped sides to reach the very top. The film's heroine clutched in one mighty paw. Rey can hardly watch as four small planes circle, each trying to get a shot at the ape, balanced precariously on the Empire State Building's summit. On the screen, Kong grips onto the metal spire that tops the tower with one hand, swatting at planes with the other. After all, where could be more fitting for this giant ape's final battle than the top of the world's tallest building? Speaker 1 (3:51) The Empire State Building is one of the most recognizable structures in the world, an iconic component of the skyline of New York City. Even for those who have never visited, the building is internationally famous thanks to its starring role in a litany of blockbuster films. Built during the early 1930s, it was completed at the end of a frenetic period of skyscraper construction in New York, which defined the city for much of the 20th century. For decades, it was the tallest building in the world, a much coveted title among American businessmen and architects in the early decades of the previous century. So who was behind this impressive feat of architecture and engineering? How did it become an American cultural icon? And what unexpected events have occurred there in its nearly 100-year lifespan? Speaker 1 (4:51) I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is a short history of the Empire State Building. New York City lies on the northeastern coast of the United States, where the Hudson River meets the Atlantic Ocean. It is comprised of five boroughs, with Manhattan occupying a central position. Today, the Empire State Building is a defining feature of Midtown, one of Manhattan's main business districts, on the west side of Fifth Avenue. But a century before the skyscraper is constructed, the plot it now occupies is still farmland. Anthony W. Robbins is an expert on New York's history and architecture and the author of New York Art Deco, a guide to Gotham's Jazz Age architecture. Speaker 2 (5:47) It was originally part of a large tract of land owned by the Astor family. They were originally from Germany, and they got to New York in the very late 18th century, and they made it very big in the fur trade. But they were also very clever about real estate. They bought a farm, which today we call Midtown Manhattan. By the mid-19th century, they had picked a couple of lots on what is now Fifth Avenue between 33rd and 34th Street and built two houses for two different members of the Astor family, which by then was an extensive family. Speaker 1 (6:19) John Jacob Astor, the family patriarch, is the first multimillionaire in American history. Two of his grandsons, John Jr. and William, build adjoining homes on Fifth Avenue. At this point, in the middle of the 19th century, it is the city's most fashionable address. New York is expanding, and what was farmland just a couple of decades before is now a millionaire's row. The street is lined with elaborate mansions owned by the cream of high society, including the famed Vanderbilt family. The two Astor houses become the meeting place for the 400, the name given to New York's social elites. The balls thrown by Mrs. Astor, who marries into the third generation of the family, are particularly legendary. Speaker 1 (7:10) In 1890, her nephew, William Waldorf Astor, decides to tear down his house, turning it instead into a 13-story hotel. The Waldorf, named after the family's ancestral home in Germany, opens its doors in 1893. But Mrs. Astor, still living next door, is horrified. How can she maintain her privacy under such conditions? Her son, the fourth John Jacob Astor, who will later perish aboard the Titanic, convinces her to move, and the house is converted into a hotel too. This one named the Astoria. Speaker 2 (7:47) They decided at a certain point, why are we competing with each other? Let's just call it the Waldorf Astoria with a hyphen. That's why the hyphen is there. And this became the premier hotel for high society in New York. Any vast gala, debutante ball, anything like that, society events happened in the old Waldorf Astoria. Speaker 1 (8:05) The conversion of the Astor houses into the Waldorf Astoria reflects the rapidly changing face of the city. As the area around Fifth Avenue begins to attract hotels, theaters, and restaurants, the millionaires move their private residences further north, away from the noisy commercial center. Though they still deign to venture to the hotel for any number of balls, galas, and grand dinners. Speaker 1 (8:31) Until the end of the 1800s, the tallest buildings here have tended to be religious. But now, New York City's skyline begins to change. Speaker 2 (8:41) New York is famous for its skyline, maybe one of the most famous things about it. And it's constantly changing. In the 19th century, the skyline was religious. It was church spires and domes. And that was just sort of the understanding of what the skyline was. And it was something of a shock when that started to change. There was a famous church in Brooklyn Heights that lost its spire in the late 19th century. There was a fire. The pastor of the church said, you know what, we're not going to rebuild the spire because now it would just be competing with the marketplace, with the secular world, and we're just not interested in doing that. Speaker 1 (9:19) Around the end of the 19th century, the tallest buildings in the world are Cologne Cathedral, whose spire reaches 512 feet, and the Washington Monument at 556 feet tall. Though the Eiffel Tower is almost twice the size of these, as a mere iron structure, it is not habitable, and therefore doesn't qualify as the tallest building. But soon, the construction of early skyscrapers gets underway. Speaker 1 (9:48) The Speaker 2 (9:48) skyscrapers were made possible, really, by two technological factors. The invention of the steel cage, which could halt the structure of the building, and the invention of the elevator, the safety elevator. And once those were in place, it was possible to just go higher and higher and higher. Speaker 1 (10:05) A succession of towers is built in Manhattan, each competing to reach greater and greater heights. First, the Singer Tower goes up as the new headquarters of the sewing machine company. This is followed by buildings named after the companies that fund them. The 612-foot Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower in 1909 and the 792-foot Woolworth Building a few years later. This flurry of construction is a uniquely American trend and it is concentrated in New York. Speaker 2 (10:37) America was feeling its oath after World War I especially, and let's see what we can do. It's a very New York thing, but it's also, I think, a very American thing. Speaker 1 (10:47) After 1920, a new fantasy emerges to build the world's first 1,000-foot skyscraper. In part, the dream is driven by the desire for publicity. Newspapers can't get enough of the ever-taller building projects, meaning that, thanks to their breathless reporting, the towers become adverts for whichever company has commissioned them. A case in point is the race in the late 1920s between the Chrysler building, built by the car company magnate of the same name, and the new Bank of Manhattan tower. For months, each vie to be taller. Speaker 1 (11:26) The competitive nature of these two building projects is heightened by the architects who have been drafted in to design them. William Van Allen is commissioned by Chrysler and H. Craig Severance by the Manhattan Bank. Business partners for 13 years, their clashing personalities led them to part ways. Now, the rivalry between the introverted Van Allen and the gregarious Severance plays out on the grand stage of the Manhattan skyline. Speaker 2 (11:54) The original Chrysler building was supposed to be 808 feet tall, which is, what, 16 feet taller than the Woolworth building, perhaps? Not much. Bank of Manhattan said something like, well, we're going to be 825. Well, we're going to be 850. Well, we're going to be 875. Well, we're going to be 900. Did I mention these were grownups? And we're going to be 925. And that was Chrysler. Walter Chrysler was not going to lose this battle, and so he arranged for this enormous steel spire, cast in five parts, to be brought secretly to the building and welded together in the building. And then as dawn broke over the metropolis, raised with a winch into the sky to the height of 1,046 feet, leaving the Bank of Manhattan and everybody else in the dust, and for the first time, taller than the Eiffel Tower. Speaker 1 (12:38) As the Chrysler and Bank of Manhattan towers are reaching towards the sky, someone else is preparing to enter the race to be the world's tallest building, and they are playing to win. During the 1928 election season,