Posted on 01/11/2020 5:17:11 PM PST by NRx
Fox Movietone news reels showing aspects of the construction of the Empire State Building including scenes with former NY Governor Al Smith.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtu.be ...
Built ahead of schedule and under budget.
Bonus... Films from the construction of 500 Fifth Ave in 1930. I get vertigo just watching those guys walking on girders 50+ stories up w/o even a hard hat.
Didn’t break even until it had been open for two decades.
Of course, unlike a later set of New York skyscrapers, it was built with enough asbestos that when a large plane crashed into it, with parts of the plane passing all the way through the building, the structure itself easily withstood the impact.
It was a B-25 in WWII.
Building the ‘Cloud Piercers’. My gig before Ret.
My dad grew up in NYC, he said watching the Empire State Building going up was one of the two most memorable events of his childhood. The other one was being an eyewitness to the Hindenburg crash.
Virtually no safety features for the workers, no harnesses or anything like that.
My Dad's folks lived in Westchester County and we drove down from upstate NY to see them every Thanksgiving and Easter starting around 1955. We'd drive across the then-brand new Tappan Zee Bridge and half way across Dad would always say to us: "Kids -- look down the Hudson and you can see the Empire State Building." Every single time we crossed the Tappan Zee Dad would say that. We used to laugh and, being smart-alecks, we'd say it before he could get it out and we'd all have a good laugh. I remember visiting the building when it was already 25 years old but it was still the tallest in the world and an engineering marvel.
Good memories.
About 25 years ago we took a family trip to NYC to see Rockefeller Plaza at Christmas, see the Rockettes, go to the visitor deck in the Empire State Building and a bunch of other Christmas festivities. I bought a souvenir in the gift shop at the Empire State Building and the crooked clerk kept my credit card. We were having hot chocolate at some famous place by Central Park when I realized my card was gone. We went back to the Empire State Building gift shop, but it was closed. I called Visa but the skunks had already sold my card number and there were a thousand dollars of fraudulent charges on the card from all over the place! Back before cell phones and sophisticated fraud detection software, issuing banks got ripped off all the time like that.
I guess that was NYC still true to form -- ripping off tourists.
I like the one where a ironworker said “oops” when he dropped his wrench from a 100 stories up.
cool. love movies of real guys making difficult stuff.
Incredible video. Thanks for posting.
Amazing to see the timeline....from demo of the Waldorf, to the grand opening of the Empire State Bldg, with special guest FDR, who was NY Gov, at the time.
Back when NY was still pro-American.
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