First of all, that caption is incorrect, and it doesn’t show the start of work. Excavation of the site began on 21 January 1930, and construction of the building itself started symbolically on 17 March – St. Patrick’s Day. The ribbon was cut on 1 May 1931. Regardless, that’s an astounding feat, timewise.

Wikipedia claims that the building design was completed in two weeks. That’s an impossibility, unless they’re referring to the schematic design alone. The foundation may have been designed within that span, based upon the calculations of previous high-rise structures, with the rest of the superstructure designed and documented during construction. (That method is called “fast-track design” today.) From Wiki:

The Empire State Building was designed by William F. Lamb from the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which produced the building drawings in just two weeks, using its earlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, Ohio (designed by the architectural firm W.W. Ahlschlager & Associates) as a basis.

[h/t 1389AD for photos.]

The construction of the Empire State Building was ego-driven, part of a race to see who could build the tallest building in New York City. Countless truck loads of elgiloy hastelloy metal beams were transported through the city, folk gawking with splendor.   Although it was the first skyscraper to boast 100 floors, it was blocks away from public transportation, and the owners had a difficult time finding renters. Building it during the Great Depression didn’t help matters, and locals referred to it mockingly as “The Empty State Building.”

The building is a monument to technical ingenuity for sure, but financially it was a boondoggle. It didn’t become profitable until 1950 – almost 20 years after it opened.

By the way, a B-25 bomber crashed into it in 1945.

Fourteen people were killed in the incident, and elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver was injured. After rescuers decided to transport her on an elevator which they did not know had weakened cables, it plunged 75 stories. She survived the plunge, which still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall recorded.

Unfortunately, the photos above don’t include foundation work. Click on each image for the awesome size (and, um, those aren’t my inane captions). The images aren’t in any particular order either, because who needs order on
The Overnight Open Thread.