Janet B. Pascal - Where Is the Empire State Building?

In 1929, there was a race for the sky in New York City. Two new skyscrapers were going upthe Chrysler Building and the Manhattan Company Building. Each owner wanted his building to be the tallest in the world. But neither man knew exactly what height the other was aiming for. The owner of the Manhattan Company managed to discover the plans for the Chrysler Building. Immediately, he changed his plans so that his building would be taller.

So in April 1930, the Manhattan Company Building became the tallest in the world. But only for a few weeks. Secretly, the crew of the Chrysler Building was creating a tall spire. All the work took place inside the unfinished building, so no one knew about it. When the spire125 feet highwas finished, it was lifted up through a hole in the roof. Suddenly the tallest building in the world was the Chrysler Building! With its spire, it was 1,046 feet tall.

What neither company knew was that a third group of builders was watching them both closely. Their building was already designed. But they were waiting until the Chrysler Building was finished before making their plans final. However tall the Chrysler Building was, they planned to make sure their own building was a little taller.

This new skyscraper was the Empire State Building. It stands in the heart of New York City, with its front entrance on Fifth Avenue below Thirty-Fourth Street. It is 102 stories high and 1,250 feet tall1,454 feet if you count the antenna on top, which was added later. Decorated with aluminum and stainless steel, it soars above other nearby skyscrapers, gleaming in the sun.

For forty yearslonger than any other buildingit held the title of the worlds tallest building. Today, most people no longer even know what the worlds tallest building is. But everyone still knows the Empire State Building.

It is one of the worlds best-loved buildings. An average of ten thousand people from all over the world visit it every day. People everywhere recognize it from movies, pictures, and advertisements. For most people, it symbolizes New York City.

Only one hundred years before work on the Empire State Building started, the spot where it would stand was still countryside. In Manhattan in 1827, William Astor bought a little farm there, with a peaceful stream running through it.

Astor was one of the richest businessmen in America. One way he made money was by buying cheap land that he guessed would soon be worth a lot. He was sure New York City would quickly grow to surround his farmand he was right.

By the 1850s, the area had become a fashionable neighborhood. William Astors two sons built themselves mansions on the lot, and the Astor family moved up to Thirty-Fourth Street. Their move turned the area into a center of power and wealth. It has stayed so ever since.

The Four Hundred

As the wife of one of Americas richest and most powerful men, Mrs. Caroline Astor ruled New Yorks fashionable society from her mansion. She decided who deserved to be a member of high society and who did not. So, everyone wanted her approval. Only the best people could pass her exclusive doors.

The largest room in Caroline Astors mansion held about four hundred people. This meant when she gave a ball, only four hundred people could be invited. If you were invited, it showed you were important. If not, you were second-class. For this reason, fashionable society in New York was often referred to as the Four Hundred.

By the 1890s, the branches of the Astor family living in the two mansions were fighting. Each Mrs. Astor thought that she should be the most important lady in the family. They both wanted to be known as the Mrs. Astor. The newspapers loved reporting on this battle.

Things got so bad that William Waldorf Astor and his wife moved away. He built a hotel where his house had stood. He did this to spite Caroline Astor, his aunt, who lived in the other house. The tall hotel blocked her sunlight. And he knew she would hate travelers coming and going right next to her.

Caroline did indeed hate the Waldorf Hotel. Soon after it opened, she moved. Her son turned the site of her mansion into another hotel: the Astoria. Before long, the two warring hotels were joined together to create one huge, fancy placethe Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. When it opened, it was the worlds largest hotel. In Peacock Alley, the long hall that joined the two buildings, upper-class New Yorkers and visitors strolled along in elegant clothes and jewels, showing off.