Empire State Building1,454-foot Art Deco skyscraper at 34th and Fifth — 86th-floor open-air observatory, 102nd-floor enclosed deck, lit-tower spire visible from every borough

The Empire State Building rose between March 17, 1930 and April 11, 1931 — a record-breaking 410 days from groundbreaking to ribbon-cutting, on the site of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Shreve, Lamb & Harmon's design adopted setbacks mandated by the 1916 Manhattan zoning law and stacked them into the streamlined, terraced limestone-and-aluminum profile that defined the skyscraper era. The 1,250-foot main tower was topped by a 200-foot dirigible mooring mast (never used; airships proved too dangerous for Midtown) and crowned in 1985 with a 222-foot lightning-rod-and-broadcast antenna, bringing the total to 1,454 feet. From its dedication on May 1, 1931 (President Hoover threw the switch from Washington) until the World Trade Center topped out in 1970, it was the tallest building in the world.

The visitor experience is built around two observatories. The 86th-floor open-air deck — the original 1931 observatory — sits at 1,050 feet, wraps the entire tower exterior, and is the deck featured in An Affair to Remember, Sleepless in Seattle, and King Kong's 1933 climb. The 102nd-floor top deck, fully enclosed in floor-to-ceiling glass since a 2019 redesign, sits at 1,250 feet and shows you all five boroughs and three states (New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania on a clear day). The second-floor entry experience — also redesigned in 2019 — is now a 10,000-square-foot museum with the Otis dual-elevator vintage car cutaway, a King Kong photo wall, and an interactive screen that recreates the 60-second elevator climb. The spire's color program (designed in collaboration with Phil Bunton since 1976) changes nightly for events: red-white-blue for the Fourth, rainbow for Pride, green for St. Patrick's, gold for the Yankees winning the World Series.

Plan two hours, pre-book online to skip the box-office line. The fastest visit goes: 9:00 AM weekday entry → 86th floor in twenty minutes → 102nd floor in another fifteen → out by 10:30 AM. Sunset is the most photographed slot but also the busiest — book the 5:30 PM time window in summer or 4:00 PM in winter to land on the deck at golden hour. The Sunrise Experience ($129) admits exactly 100 people 30 minutes before sunrise — the deck is otherwise empty, the city is silent, and the photos are the best you'll ever take. Closest subways: 34th Street–Herald Square (B/D/F/M/N/Q/R/W) two blocks west, 33rd Street (6) two blocks east, 34th Street–Penn Station (1/2/3) three blocks west.