Empire State Building Facts

A bullet dropped (not fired) from the Empire State Building would reach a terminal velocity of only about 50 mph—not fast enough to kill someone. However, heavier objects like pennies could still cause painful injuries.

The Empire State Building's spire was designed as a boarding dock for airships. Passengers would cross an open gangplank 1,250 feet above the street, then ride an elevator down. In September 1931, a small airship docked there for three minutes in 40 mph winds. Two weeks later, a blimp lowered newspapers to the tower on a 100 foot rope. Updrafts made the mast unusable. No airship ever truly docked there.

This ironworker on the Empire State Building was photographed by Lewis Hine, a man in his mid-50s whose pictures of kids in mills had already helped turn America against child labor. In 1930 Hine climbed the bare steel alongside the crews, and for the highest shots they swung him out in a basket nearly a quarter-mile above Fifth Avenue.