MAY 1

It all started as a competition between car makers Walter Chrysler (Chrysler Corporation), and John Jakob Raskob (General Motors) to see who could build the tallest building.  Chrysler got a head start, finishing his NYC Chrysler Building in 1928.  At the time it was the tallest building in the world, but just 11 months later, the Empire State Building was complete, and was 104 feet taller!

Fun facts about the Empire State Building:

• has it's own zip code (10118)

• 102 floors

• standing tall, it takes up a full city block.  If you laid the floors out horizontally, they would cover 21 city blocks!

• weighs 370,000 tons (a ton is 1,000 pounds)

• reaches 1/4 mile into the air

• 6,500 windows 

• 1,860 steps to get to the top floor

• 79 elevators

• cost nearly $41 million dollars to build (about $7 billion dollars today)

• over 3.5 million people visit each year

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