The Empire State Building began as no more than a glimmer in the eye of John J. Raskob, the vice president of General Motors. He dreamed to construct a building that would exceed the height of the Chrysler Building. The building was to be built on the site that previously housed the "twin hotel" of Waldorf-Astoria. The land alone cost Raskob approximately $16 million.

After the site was chosen work began on designs by the architectural firm of Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon Associates. Raskob knew very little about architecture but he was certain of one thing; He wanted his building to be the tallest building in the world. The one notable question he asked the architects was "How high can you make it so it won't fall down?" The blueprint they settled seemed simple. There was to be a certain amount of space in the center arranged as compactly as possible containing mail chutes, toilets, shafts and corridors surrounded by a perimeter of office space approximately twenty eight feet deep. As easy as it seemed the plans changed sixteen times during both planning and construction.

Planning of the worlds tallest structure turned out to be half of the challenge. Who would they get to b

Today, the enormous building is a national monument. It receives tourists at a rate of about 35,000 per day and has been host to political and entertainment figures including Fidel Castro, Queen Elizabeth and King Kong. It is just as beautiful, excellent, and world-renowned today as it was when it first opened seventy-two years ago.

In 1945, the building received an unintentional test of its stability. A B-25 military cargo plane crashed into the 79th floor due to the poor visibility that the pilot in the dense fog. The crash killed eleven workers in the offices of the War Relief Services of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, took the lives of the three crewmen on board the B-25, and injured 26 others. Though several lives were lost on that day the ultimate test had been passed. The building had taken a hit from an airplane and survived. Repairs of the damage cost one million dollars but the building was still standing and it reopened for business the following workday.

The completion of the frame and steel work meant that it was time for cosmetic work to begin on the mammoth structure. More than two hundred thousand cubic feet of Indian limestone and granite were used to cover the exterior. Ten million bricks, seven hundred and thirty tons of aluminum and stainless steel, and six thousand five hundred windows were also used to make the building the beauty that we know today. Eighteen different color floodlights were installed soon after the completion of the building, which are used to illuminate it on public holidays and other notable occasions. The grand lobby of the building stands five-stories t

Some common words found in the essay are:
Empire Building, Associates Raskob, Welfare Conference, Eken Incorporated, Chrysler Building, Brothers Eken, Washington DC, John Raskob, King Kong, empire building, Herbert Hoover, starrett brothers eken, twelve hundred, building tallest, building world, suitable job, stainless steel, hundred feet, starrett brothers, tallest building world, building tallest building, brothers eken, chrysler building,
Approximate Word count = 1110
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)