Blimps Docked on Empire State Building: True or False?

A popular myth claims that the top of the Empire State Building was meant to serve as a docking station for dirigibles, but the building's owners say that the story is just hot air.

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[ap]

Actually, it was supposed to be a mooring mast. It was even tried once but the winds made it unsafe/impossible.

[superb]

This is incorrect. On September 15, 1931, a US Navy blimp did in fact dock on the top of the mast, but released quickly due to the wind around the building. This docking event and some similar ones all occurred within a year of the building's completion. The spire was initially designed and built to be an experimental mooring mast for blimps, and the notion that it was only installed to make it taller than the Chrysler building is false because the main structure of the Empire State Building itself (not including the mast) is already taller than it. Also, if you look at the designs for the top of the mast, it looks exactly the same as the other mooring masts used around the world at the time.

[Joepacalypse]

This is wrong. The current CEO is known for not knowing the history of the building and proves it here.

[charleschapman]

it was supposed to be a terminal for airships, but the downtown winds killed a similar idea for helicopter landing pads (on the Pan-Am Building)

[DiandraStarShine]

why would the WSJ keep this video posted? considering the sub-thread below, started by the OP called "superb." how is a NEWSPAPER business + a journalist AND ALSO the executive of the building's realty trust NOT even going to care enough to do proper research on the topic?? that's *absolutely* lazy and pathetic and *shame* on them all for - at this point - not misinforming but *DISINFORMING* the public..it's been 5 years, for pete's sake!🙄

[OlkvD]

My grandfather worked for AT&T way back in the day and had routinely climbed the antenna of the Empire State Building to perform maintenance on it.

Once you reach the top of the Mooring Mast,
you then had to climb up and out of it where the antenna is.
Now, completely exposed to the elements,
you would have to ascend the antenna in a similar way that lumberjacks ascend trees.

[captainrandom]

“Everything is impossible, until someone does it.”

[Garysmith]

Tartarian Empire building.
These people are lying.

[Floedekage]

2:43 - "But sorry Hollywood, this picture is just a lot of hot air"
The joke being of course that zeppelins weren't filled with hot air, but with hydrogen...

[setyx.]

My father grandpa dockt with the german blimp on the empire state building

[JustinLodes]

Oh well, at least we know King Kong climbed to the top and whacked some biplanes. We know this from the historic movies that clearly showed him doing so

[ledauphindebourbon]

I happen to own a house from 1908 and practically every single person in the town has his own version what it was built for, what it was used for, does it have secret treasure etc. ....Here at least it boils down to two versions lol

[timcovey]

Owners are not engineers, owners are banks or investors. They have absolutely no idea how the building was built or care.. The Rand building and ships had mooring masts also, it wasn't a crazy idea. I bet any engineer could build a wench in any space or make space. The empire state building was already 3ft the tallest, no need to add more. A forethought before its time, Building have pads helicopters today, all over NY. "The 7 minutes to the street" would have been hours faster than a Lakehurst dropoff and was a great idea at the time and today . Docked vs moored, what is docked, , the spire was always a mooring and a goodyear blimp was moored at the ES building, for a short time, wench not needed.
The creator of this video was to lazy to go beyond whoever was working that day, stroking some opinion without fact.

[georgemallory]

Sorry narrator, but dirigibles don't utilize hot air.

[m.miller]

This guy needs to watch “Spectacular Disasters” documentary from 1986 narrated by George Takei. The blimps exchanged mail at the mast.

[lukecisneros]

somebody play an huge prank on chrysler.

[HoaxKAMEPA]

That guy Anthony E. Malkin doesn't know what he's talking about.

[evelasq]

Navy did try to dock the Empire State Building before but it failed due to safety.  Take it from New Yorker who knows.

[machia-mwlm]

It was absolutely designed for docking LTA's, and in fact it did, but high winds made it impractical . An LTA docking in close proximity of a building structure in high wind conditions was too complex and the idea was abandoned .
Landings were conducted over 50 miles south at Lakehurst, NJ . Passengers then took a train or bus back to NYC or Newark .

[urglegurgle]

Yep, that CEO and the content creator clearly have not seen the film of one of the trial dockings where they collect the mail.

Current CEO seems to assume that you can’t fit a winch in due to all the other transmission gear that was slotted in years later after the structure was modified.