Was The Empire State Building a Blimp Port? IT'S HISTORY

Complete History of the Empire State building. As the victor of the 1930s’ race to the sky, the Empire State Building has long been hailed as one of America’s biggest landmarks and tourist destinations, second only to the Statue of Liberty. With its incredible feats of construction, it is nothing short of a marvel of architecture that holds fast as a beacon of light and hope to all of America even today. But this magnificent building wasn’t always so successful— opening in 1931 to an incredibly bleak financial prospects and a mostly empty building, it quickly began to be referred to as the “Empty State Building” on account of the shockingly low amount of tenants that rented space in it. Despite its great promise, what could have caused such a disastrous start? And how did the building recover from it? Who was the Empire State Building built for? Did the Empire State Building get destroyed? Was the Empire State Building built during the Great Depression? Was the Empire state building a blimp port? Watch our video to find out

» CREDITS
Video editor - Rishi Mittal
Script writer - Imana Schoch
Host - Ryan Socash

Chapters:
00:00 - The History of the Empire State building
01:00 - The Empire State building in modern day
02:00 - History of the worlds largest Hotel, The Waldorf-Astoria
4:46 - Demolition of the Waldorf Astoria hotel and plan for Empire State building
05:34 - Competition for the tallest building in the world
07:35 - The Chrysler buildings “spire” surprise
08:14 - The construction of the Empire State building (Part 1)
09:41 - How the empire state building became the tallest building in the world
10:55 - The History of the Empire State building’s airship port
12:21 - Attempts of blimp docking at the empire state building?
13:44 - The construction of the Empire State building (Part 2)
15:14 - Who were the labourers of the Empire state building?
17:22 - Empire State buildings grand opening
18:28 - The “Empty State building”
20:26 - The technology of the empire state building
21:58 - When the Empire State building lost its title as the tallest building in the world.
22:39 - The legacy of the empire state building

IT’S HISTORY - Weekly Tales of American Urban Decay as presented by your host Ryan Socash.

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Creative commons:

IT’S HISTORY - Weekly tales of American Urban Decay as presented by your host Ryan Socash.

» NOTICE
Some images may be used for illustrative purposes only - always reflecting the accurate time frame and content. Events of factual error / mispronounced word / spelling mistakes - retractions will be published in this section.

[camithewitch]

Having so much money that you can demolish your huge family house to build a hotel bigger than your cousin's so you can stick it to him... can't say I relate.

[philipgior]

The old Waldorf was a pretty damn impressive building in it's day. Still would be now if it were still standing.

[lindaeasley]

I find the Chrysler Building to be one of the most esthetically pleasing in the entire world.Such beautiful art deco styling

[KRAFTWERKK]

There is something incredibly impressive about the roof-line of these old late 19th and early 20th century buildings. They have an impressive and cozy mix of beautifully designed roofs with long and elegant shapes that almost reminds you of historic castles. So many spots to look at. They are like oil paintings that you can look at for HOURS and still discover something new. *edit: typo*

[Scottocaster]

And strong enough to hold a 25-40 foot Ape a number of times throughout it's existence. 1year and 45 day completion is incredible.
Awesome building still to this day.

[fasinfata]

It's really fascinating to see that today's bustling 5th avenue was once a place of mansions with lots of greenery around them.

[badreality]

You can complain about this building's "waste", but that pales in comparison to Dubai's skyscraper. ...who's biggest complaint, is the lack of connections to a surrounding sewer system.

The people call the armada of trucks that daily empty its septic tanks the "Poo Parade".

[BuChan]

Also, to think the Empire State Building was also able to withstand a hit by a plane in the 1940s shows that it was well-engineered.

Will you do a video about that event some time as a follow-up?

[thomasdarby]

Had to laugh when you referred to the movie Hancock as "Hand-cock!" Lol.

[SocialistDistancing]

I had a by chance opportunity to visit the empire state building in 1999. I was driving from Miami Beach to Montreal and stopped just to see the building. It only cost $6 to go to the observation deck. Extremely fascinating. I can't remember the exact amount of elevators but I think it was 73 elevators. Not all elevators went to the top. Also, when they were building the empire building, they were looking for a way to shave off 5 minutes on each window install. That doesn't sound like much, but times that by 4400 windows and that turns into months. When I visited the empire state building, it was September 9th 1999. It was a hazy day and you couldn't see the world trade center clearly. So, I didn't get any pictures of it. I was going to head to WTC and check that out too. But, I didn't as I had to get back on the road. No one could've predicted that almost two years to the day later, they would be gone. I definitely regret not going to WTC that day. Had the weather been that hazy in 2001, I don't think the terrorists would have been successful. Bastards!
If you have never visited the empire state building, do so. It's something that you'll never forgot.

[SirKenchalot]

This is my fav building in the world and you put together a great video. Good job. Hoping to move in soon.

[dannyb.]

Handcock was such an underrated movie.

[theunlawfulsponge]

Very good video but I'm abit disappointed you didn't mention the B-25 that smacked into it at the end of the war

[richardbartolo]

The steel workers were incredible guys. You had to have a cast iron pair to work that high up. Imagine being 102 stories up catching red hot rivets and drilling them in while standing on a girder. Very special men.

[KRAFTWERKK]

The Empire State Building shows that ART DECO is simply timeless. It STILL looks futuristic, impressive and just breathtaking. When Skyscrapers weren't just faceless postmodern Tetris blocks.

[ItsAVolcano]

One of the crazy stories I heard of the construction gave special mention to the riveters. Apparently to save time they only set up a kiln to heat the rivets every few floors and would just have the guy heating them use his giant tongs to hurl the red-hot rivets up or down a floor or two to the riveters where a catcher with asbestos gloves and a metal funnel would grab them.

[el_puma_real]

16:46 Building the Empire State building while the Empire State building looms in the background. Great video!

[TheWebcrafter]

At 1:29 the narrator mentions Queen Elizabeth the Second, however, the Royal (pictured) is Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. She was queen-by-marriage to King George VI, and coincidentally, shared the same first same as her daughter.

After her husband King George VI died, she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter who became Queen Elizabeth the Second (queen-by-succession) upon the death of her father in 1952. Queen Elizabeth was crowned the following year in 1953.

On 30 March 2002, at 15:15 GMT, Elizabeth Queen Mother died at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, at the age of 101, with her surviving daughter Queen Elizabeth II by her side. She had been suffering from a chest cold since Christmas 2001.

At 101 years and 238 days old she was the first member of the British royal family to live past the age of 100.

She was the longest-living member of the British royal family at the time of her death. Her surviving sister-in-law, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester exceeded that, dying at the age of 102 on 29 October 2004. She was one of the longest-lived members of any royal family.

[juant]

Wow another awesome history lesson of this building. Would love to get a video of the Chrysler building. It’s my favorite building ever!

[davemccage]

I always thought of the Chrysler building’s spire as a giant metallic middle finger to the competition. Oh the lolz it inspires.