5 Things You Didn’t Know About Jerry Maguire

It’s been featured in many movies over the years; it’s one of the most photographed buildings on social media, and 110 million people have visited its observation deck.Show more

Originally designed as an airport for transatlantic blimps, the tower took 3400 workers just 13 months to build it, back when America was reaching for the skies. That’s two floors per week! By 1929 there was an intense rivalry as to who will build the tallest skyscraper. The two tallest buildings at the time – 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building – kept that epithet for less than a year. The Empire State Building soon dwarfed them all. The reason behind the speedy completion was the desire to show that, despite the great depression, things were getting done.

A 200 crown was added to the top and was promoted as a mooring mast for transatlantic flights. The blimps tried to dock, but the high winds prevented them from performing it safely. The famous Hindenburg Disaster in 1936 put the cork on all commercial air travel by blimps.

As glamorous as it may look on the outside, the Empire State Building has seen a lot of tragedies, starting from the Mitchell Bomber that was flying through thick fog and crashed in the side of the building, at the 79th and 80th floors. Fourteen people on the plane and 11 in the building were killed.

But the most infamous reason the building is known for are the suicides that happen from the observation deck. Thirty people have taken their lives jumping from this deck, with the most famous being 23-year-old Evelyn McHale, a.k.a. “The Beautiful Suicide". After her death, a fence was erected to stop people from jumping.