The Empire State Building opens in New York City
On this day · 1 May 1931
On May Day 1931, a 102-story tower opened in Manhattan and held the title of world's tallest building for nearly 40 years.
On 1 May 1931, the Empire State Building opened its doors to the public. From the White House, President Herbert Hoover pressed a golden telegraph key, symbolically switching on the lights of New York’s newest landmark while a luncheon crowd that included Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt gathered on the 86th floor.
At 102 stories and 1,250 feet (1,454 feet to the tip of its lightning rod), it was the tallest building in the world. It would keep that crown until the World Trade Center surpassed it in 1970 — nearly four decades later.
Raised in just over a year, it rose roughly a floor a day at the height of construction.
The timing was awkward. The tower opened into the depths of the Great Depression, and so much of its office space sat empty that New Yorkers wryly nicknamed it the “Empty State Building.” Full tenancy would not arrive until the 1940s.
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