The Empire State Building is an iconic landmark of New York City. It was the second building in the world to surpass the 1000-foot mark after the Chrysler building. The construction was started in 1930 and completed in 1931. Its opening coincided with the Great Depression and, as a result, much of the office space went unrented. The skyscraper did not become profitable until 1950.
The construction involved more than 3,500 workers. Many of the workers were Irish, Italian with a sizable minority of Mohawk ironworkers from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal. The Mohawk’s involvement in high-level construction goes back to 1886 when a group of men was hired to work on a bridge over the St. Lawrence River onto Mohawk land. The tribe members had an aptitude for working at heights.
The Empire State’s construction and its workers were a sensation for the press and magazine. Many photographers documented the construction and labors in photographs. Here below are some stunning daredevil photos from the construction of an iconic building…
#1 Empire State Building under Construction.
#2 Carl Russell waves to his co-workers on the structural work of the 88th floor of the new Empire State Building.
When complete the highest man-made structure in the world will rise 1,222 feet above the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street. The cameraman risked his life climbing a derrick to snap this unusual photograph. Notice the "Toy" cars and the ant-sized pedestrians walking about Herald Square almost a quarter of a mile below.Sep, 13. 1930
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#3 A ‘blimp’ flying over the Empire State Building.Sep. 29, 1931
#4 It may be painful for the ant-like spectators in the street below.
#5 The startling ‘shot’ was made by the photographer looking down upon the window washers on the 34th street side of the world-famed building.
#6 Aerial view of New York City atop the Empire State Building.1930s
#7 Flirting with danger is just routine work for the steel workers arranging the steel frame for the Empire State Building, which will be the world’s tallest structure when completed.Sept. 29, 1930
#8 New York City: Lighting Up ‘Way Up.’ A striking silhouette atop the gigantic RCA Building in Rockefeller Center, New York, as workmen light their cigarettes at the end of a working day.
#9 Erected on the site of the old Waldorf Astoria, this building will rise 1,284 feet into the air. A zeppelin mooring mast will cap this engineering feat.Sept. 29, 1930
#10 Empire State Building under. Sept. 29, 1930
#11 Air like wine.
An unusual picture of one of the intrepid window washers working on the Empire State Building, as he pauses in his task to draw a lung-full of clean air at his height. With the oncoming of the warmer weather our skyscrapers begin to look like giant ant-hills as these washers clamber over the faces of the structures calmly doing their nerve-tingling work. Or maybe the fellow pictured here is just issuing an invitation to the cameraman to come a little closer.Mar. 24, 1936
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#12 Empire State Building under. Sept. 29, 1930
#13 Empire State Building under. Sept. 29, 1930
#14 An odd photographic trick placed this steelworker’s finger on the lofty pinnacle of the Chrysler Building.
#15 A construction worker hangs from an industrial crane during the construction of the Empire State Building. Oct. 29, 1930
#16 Ex-Governor Alfred E. Smith, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, and others at the top of the Empire State Building, tallest in the world, gazing out over the New York panorama.
This scene took place immediately after the official opening of the structure this morning, which was completed when President Herbert Hoover pressed a telegraph key back in Washington, DC, which turned on all of the building's lights. Mr. Smith is the president of the company that built the building.May 1, 1931
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#17 Workmen place one of the new beacon lights in position on the 90th floor of an impressive electronic crown in the form of four far-reaching night beacons.
Combined, the four Empire State Night lights will generate almost two billion candle power of light and will be the brightest continuous source of man-made light in the world. Engineers say the beacons can be seen from as far as 300 miles. Cost of the installation is $250,000.Feb. 28, 1956
