Empire state building

Empire State Building
by J. Patrick Lewis

I am an American boy, standing up to the world.
I sleep the city sleeps. We dream
     the riveter’s dream, held island-fast.
I wake to taxi alarms.
I am a 102-stop elevator ride to heaven.
I am ten million bricks of unshakable faith.
I capture imagination at its peak.
I hugged King Kong, he hugged me back.
I look down on Broadway for a work of art,
     the Fulton Fish Market for a slice of life,
     United Nations Headquarters for a little peace.
It’s lonely up here without my twin brothers,
     the World Trade Center Towers.
Wait here on my doorstep, Central Park,
     while I look over Harlem.
I am an American boy, face to face with the world.

If I had to pick a skyscraper, I would say my favorite one in the Empire State Building in New York. The Empire State Building stands at 437 meters with the antenna and 433 meters without the antenna or 1433.727034121 feet. It cost 41 million U.S. dollars to build the Empire State Building and was completed May 1, 1931, during the Great Depression. This magnificent building took one year and 45 days to build, or 7 million man-hours, a record to this day for a skyscraper of its height. The Empire State Building is the icon of New York. It is where dreams are made. This gigantic building is the longest holder of the “World’s Tallest Building” title, from 1931 to 1972. The building lights up regularly to promote charitable causes and mark significant events. If that is not enough, the Empire State Building is one of the few skyscrapers that offer wedding packages at its observatory.

The Empire State Building is known for so many things. American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor, Shawn Corey Carter better known as Jay-Z, wrote a song “Empire State of Mind.” He said, “Three dice, Cee-Lo, three-card Monte, Labor Day Parade, rest in peace, Bob Marley, Statue of Liberty, long live the World Trade, long live the king, yo I’m from the Empire State that’s.” Jay-Z even goes further to mention in the chorus, “In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made, oh. There’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in New York. These streets will make you feel brand new. Big lights will inspire you; let’s hear it for New York. New York, New York.”

The Empire State Building has been featured in many books, movies, and TV shows. Probably the most popular reference to the Empire State Building is the 1933 film King Kong. In King Kong a giant ape climbs the top of the Empire State Building to escape, but falls to his death after losing his balance trying to defend himself against the airplanes attacking him. Many films have opened with the Empire State Building, such as West Side Story, Step Up 3D, and The Other Guys. In James and the Giant Peach, the giant peach is dropped onto the lightning rod of the Empire State Building at the end of the book.

One big myth about the Empire State Building is that dropping a penny from the top of it is dangerous, possibly fatal, or/and put a crater in the pavement. In an episode of MythBusters, this myth was tested. The results were that by the time the penny hit the ground, it was going roughly 65 mph (105 km/h) which is the terminal velocity for an object of its mass and shape, which is not fast enough to inflict lethal injury or put a crater into the pavement. This myth is a joke that arrived from the 2003 musical Avenue Q, where a character waiting at the top of the building for a rendezvous throws a penny over the side of the building, only for it to hit her rival.

What I think is the most interesting thing about the Empire State Building is the story of 23 year old Evelyn McHale. More than thirty people have committed suicide from the top of the building and the first suicide occurred even before its completion, by a worker who had been laid off.  A fence was building in 1947 after five people tried to jump during a three week span. On May 1, 1947 Evelyn McHale jumped for the 86^th floor observation deck to her death. She landed on a United Nations limousine parked at the curbed. A few minutes after her death, photography student Robert Wiles took a photo of McHale’s oddly intact corpse. The police found a suicide note in her possessions that she left on the observation deck: “He is much better off without me…I would not make a good wife for anybody.” The photo ran in the May 12, 1947, edition of Life magazine and is often referred to as “The Most Beautiful Suicide.” It was later used by visual artist Andy Warhol in one of his prints entitled Suicide (Fallen Body).

The building that united a country.

 The Empire State Building is seen across the East River from Brooklyn.

Lighting at the top of the Empire State Building

Works Cited

Cheung, Tim. "20 of the World's Most Iconic Skyscrapers." CNN Travel. CNN Travel, 11 Feb. 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2013.

"Empire State Building." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Apr. 2013. Web. 30 Apr. 2013.

HISKEY, DAVEN. "Dropping a Penny from the Top of the Empire State Building Isn’t Dangerous." Today I Found Out RSS. N.p., 27 Oct. 2010. Web. 30 Apr. 2013.

Lewis, J. Patrick. "The Stenhouse Blog." Poetry Friday: The Empire State Building. The Stenhouse Blog, 22 Oct. 2010. Web. 30 Apr. 2013.

"The Streetlamp Doesn't Cast Her Shadow Anymore." : Griff Says; Evelyn McHale. N.p., 17 Oct. 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2013.