Midtown Manhattan and the Empire State Building - May 29

[liralen]

I got up the next morning feeling a little groggy, my body still thought it was a little too early, but my mind was fixed on the idea of walking amid myths today

Comments

ESB vs B-25

[amberley]

Great write-up, thanks! Did they mention the time a B-25 crashed into the Empire State Building? A B-25 crashed into the 79th floor on July 28, 1945 killing 14 people; one elevator plunged 1000 feet but the operator survived.

The Empire State Building at W 33rd and 5th Ave in Manhattan's 86th floor is 1050 feet above the city. The top of the dirigible mast reaches 102 stories, 1472 feet high. The building weighs 70-80,000 tons. Five people died during its construction.

Re: ESB vs B-25

[liralen]

They hadn't mentioned those things! I love that, especially the elevator operator. Wow.

I also like all the measurements to the top. I imagine that there was probably a display for those measurements, too, but we didn't stop to look at all of them. That is an amazingly small number of people dying, given that it looked like they had no safety equipment whatsoever... wow.

Thank you!!!

[randwolf]

I wonder if Times Square has gotten brighter? It was called "The Great White Way," back at the dawn of electric light, but perhaps modern technologies have made it brighter still.

The steam still heats buildings, by the way-it's produced as a byproduct of fossil-fuel electricity generation. It's one of reasons in which just being in New York makes a building energy efficient. I wonder what the buildings will do for heat once we stop burning fossil fuels?

[liralen]

It could well be called that still...

Ahhh... I hadn't known that it was a by-product, it makes a lot of sense.