The facts about the Empire State Building

*Introduction*

It’s always been there sitting in the corner of my subconscious. You know, the dream of going to America to see those iconic sights you’d seen a million times on TV. Well, OK, not America but New York to be more specific. Having made up my mind to finally go, one of the first things I did was to book tickets to go and see the Empire State Building. When you book your online holiday package with Expedia, you are given the option of adding in extras in advance. In our case, I booked the E-tickets for ESB and printed them off to take with us.

*Getting There*

The Empire State Building is at 350 5th Avenue at 34th Street just off Times Square and not far from Macys. Depending on where your hotel is, the most obvious ways to get there is NY yellow cab although we actually walked as our hotel was not too far away. Subway B, D, F, Q, N, R, V, W to 34th Street will also get you there. The ESB is open from 9.30am until Midnight and it’ll cost you $12 for adults, $11 seniors and $7 for children. Under 6 goes free.

*Iconic History*

It’s somewhat blas to say that the ESB and New York are synonymous but it is true. The ESB was completed in 1931 and for 40 years was the largest building in the world. The 1929 Wall Street Crash had called into question its completion but, nevertheless, 45 days ahead of schedule and at a mammoth 443m (1454 feet), the project was successfully concluded.

The 1933 movie King Kong catapulted the building to the top of Global attention with the famous finale involving King Kong fighting off planes at the top of the ESB. To be honest, this made just as big an impression with me as a kid when I saw the movie for the first time and many other movie projects such as “James and the Giant Peach” have gone onto to imprint the ESB into children’s’ psyches all around the world.

With the tragic destruction of the World Trade Centre in the September 11th atrocities, the ESB stands behind the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in height but in many people’s eyes, it is still the tallest building in the world.

*Inside the building*

We arrived at midday on a cloudy day in March. We’d been told to try the ESB on a cloudy day as the queues wouldn’t be as bad although we could have chosen a better time. First thing is supposed to be the best time to visit i.e. 9.30am. Saying that, when pottering about Times Square later that evening, we were staggered by the massive queues snaking all around