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The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in New York City. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than 40 years, from its completion in 1931 until the construction of the World Trade Center North Tower in 1972.

The Empire State Building has been named by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. After the World Trade Center was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Empire State Building became once again the tallest building in New York City and the second-tallest building in the United States, after the Sears Tower in Chicago.

Despite the appearance of taller buildings throughout the world over the years, the Empire State Building, born in the aftermath of the Stock Market Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression, has remained an icon of the American spirit and the nation's ingenuity.

Though not as flashy as the nearby Chrysler Building, or as massively striking at the former World Trade Center Twin Towers, the Empire State Building presents a strong yet eloquent presence over the Manhattan skyline. Its observation decks on the 86th and 102nd floors have beckoned millions of visitors. Completed in just 410 days, the Empire State Building is an enduring symbol of the American will to accomplish great works.

Credit : New World Encyclopedia 

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In 1931, President Herbert Hoover remained comfortably in Washington, D.C., and pressed a button to turn on the lights at New York City's Empire State Building. The theatrics were staged, of course, as someone in New York flipped the actual switches that symbolized the dedication of the new building.

Erected during the Great Depression and employing up to 3,400 workers a day, the building was a tremendous source of pride for New Yorkers. The completed 102-story building stands 1,454 feet tall — if you count the lighting rod. It was the then-tallest building in the world, a title that has since been claimed by other constructions.

The building has become an iconic part of American culture, famously featuring in the King Kong franchise and welcoming real-life visitors to stand upon its observation decks and look out over the city that never sleeps. The building has undergone many different changes to meet the needs of modern-day inhabitants and visitors. In 2008, renovations began on the lobby that took four months longer than the entire building's construction did eight decades earlier!

Located in midtown Manhattan at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, the building stands within the geographical boundaries of the city's 10001 zip code. In 1980, however, the building received its own unique code of 10118 to help route deliveries to the many offices that fill the building's floors.

Credit : Travel Trivia 

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The Empire State Building is composed of 60,000 tons of steel, 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone and granite, 10 million bricks, and 730 tons of aluminum and stainless steel.

Steel columns and beams form a stable 3-D grid throughout the entire structure. But since such closely spaced column grids obstruct open spaces in buildings, there are virtually no open spans, or column-free spaces, on each floor of the Empire State Building.

The Empire State Building remained the tallest building in the world for 41 years. In 1972, the World Trade Center claimed this distinction. Today, despite being surpassed in height by six other towers, the Empire State Building remains an internationally known landmark and arguably the most famous building ever constructed.

Credit : PBS 

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The elevator ride is quick, less than one minute. When you arrive at the top, you’re on your own and free to roam around. On a clear day, visibility from the deck is up to 80 miles.

You can even see five different states: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Delaware.

Restrooms and binoculars are available on the 86th floor, but there are no restaurants or other eateries. The gift shop is on the 80th floor and can be visited anytime during your stay.

There is no time limit to your visit. The entire experience usually takes around an hour. If you wish to come back to see the view again at night, you can purchase a night pass and return later that day without purchasing a second ticket.

The Empire State Building is handicap accessible and motorized or non-motorized wheelchairs are available if needed. Ramps are present throughout the observatory, and guests will also find lowered viewing walls and binoculars.

There’s also a multi-language, interactive audio tour guide app available to download before your visit or while on-site.

Credit : Experience First

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On May 1, 1931, President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City’s Empire State Building, pressing a button from the White House that turns on the building’s lights. Hoover’s gesture, of course, was symbolic; while the president remained in Washington, D.C., someone else flicked the switches in New York.

The idea for the Empire State Building is said to have been born of a competition between Walter Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation and John Jakob Raskob of General Motors, to see who could erect the taller building. Chrysler had already begun work on the famous Chrysler Building, the gleaming 1,046-foot skyscraper in midtown Manhattan. Not to be bested, Raskob assembled a group of well-known investors, including former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith. The group chose the architecture firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates to design the building. The Art-Deco plans, said to have been based in large part on the look of a pencil, were also builder-friendly: The entire building went up in just over a year, under budget (at $40 million) and well ahead of schedule. During certain periods of building, the frame grew an astonishing four-and-a-half stories a week.

At the time of its completion, the Empire State Building, at 102 stories and 1,250 feet high (1,454 feet to the top of the lightning rod), was the world’s tallest skyscraper. The Depression-era construction employed as many as 3,400 workers on any single day, most of whom received an excellent pay rate, especially given the economic conditions of the time. The new building imbued New York City with a deep sense of pride, desperately needed in the depths of the Great Depression, when many city residents were unemployed and prospects looked bleak. The grip of the Depression on New York’s economy was still evident a year later, however, when only 25 percent of the Empire State’s offices had been rented.

In 1972, the Empire State Building lost its title as world’s tallest building to New York’s World Trade Center, which itself was the tallest skyscraper for but a year. Today the honor belongs to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa tower, which soars 2,716 feet into the sky.

Credit :  History 

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Intended to be the world's first 100+ story building, construction of the Empire State Building began on March 17, 1930. Construction was completed in a record-breaking 1 year and 45 days.

Despite the colossal size of the project, the design, planning and construction of the Empire State Building took just 20 months from start to finish. After demolishing the Waldorf-Astoria hotel—the plot’s previous occupant—contractors Starrett Brothers and Eken used an assembly line process to erect the new skyscraper in a brisk 410 days. Using as many as 3,400 men each day, they assembled its skeleton at a record pace of four and a half stories per week—so fast that the first 30 stories were completed before certain details of the ground floor were finalized. The Empire State Building was eventually finished ahead of schedule and under budget, but it also came with a human cost: at least five workers were killed during the construction process.

Shortly after the World Trade Center towers were erected in the early 1970s, an architect at the firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon concocted a scheme that would allow the Empire State Building to keep its crown as the world’s tallest skyscraper. The proposed plan called for the building’s 16-story tower to be demolished and replaced by a new top section that would increase its height to 113 stories and 1,495 feet. If completed, the renovation would have made the Empire Building taller than both the World Trade Center and the Sears Tower—which was then under construction—but the idea was quickly dropped due to cost concerns and complaints that it would destroy the building’s iconic look.

Credit : History

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A feat of true American accomplishment, the Empire State Building in New York City stands 1454 feet tall and is currently the 9th tallest building in the world and the 4th tallest freestanding structure in the Americas.. This NY monument has 102 stories, and was the first building to every have more than 100 stories. The Empire State Building NYC was also named the 7th wonder of the world by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The 7th world wonder has attracted 120 million people to its New York observatories. That is nearly 3.6 million visitors a year! A cultural landmark as well as a New York landmark, the Empire State Building has been in more than 90 films, including North by Northwest, Annie Hall, and of course, King Kong.

The Empire State Building construction was completed in 1931, in the middle of the Great Depression in New York City. At the time, the Empire State Building held the mantle as the tallest building in the world, beating out the other skyscraper being built at the same time in New York City: the Chrysler Building. The project involved 3,400 workers, made up of mostly European immigrants, and hundreds of Mohawk iron workers. The first use of the lights at the top of the Empire State Building were to signal to New Yorkers that President Franklin Roosevelt had won the 1932 Presidential election.

Credit : NYC Tourist

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Empire State Building, steel-framed skyscraper rising 102 stories that was completed in New York City in 1931 and was the tallest building in the world until 1971. The Empire State Building is located in Midtown Manhattan, on Fifth Avenue at 34th Street. It remains one of the most distinctive and famous buildings in the United States and is one of the best examples of Modernist Art Deco design.

At the time of its construction, there was fierce competition to win the title of tallest building in the world. The Chrysler Building claimed the title in 1929, and the Empire State Building seized it in 1931, its height being 1,250 feet (381 metres) courtesy of its iconic spire, which was originally intended to serve as a mooring station for airships. A 222-foot (68-metre) antenna was added in 1950, increasing the building’s total height to 1,472 feet (449 metres), but the height was reduced to 1,454 feet (443 metres) in 1985 when the antenna was replaced. (By that time One World Trade Center, officially opened in 1972, had become the tallest building in the world.)

The primary duo behind the construction of the Empire State Building was John J. Raskob and Al Smith. Raskob, a self-made business mogul and onetime chairman of the General Motors Corporation finance committee, together with Smith, who was a former Democratic governor of New York, seemed like a strange pair on paper. In all likelihood, their lasting friendship was built on mutual recognition of their similar origin stories as children born to struggling immigrant Roman Catholic families. Raskob and Smith could appreciate the tactful hustling each had to do before vaulting into the public eye of America. Prior to setting forth plans for the Empire State Building in 1929, Smith enlisted Raskob to serve as chairman for the Democratic National Committee and as his own campaign manager for his second run at the presidency, in the 1928 U.S. presidential election. His defeat, at the hands of Republican candidate Herbert Hoover, affirmed that the country was reluctant to risk the economic prosperity of the 1920s by electing a Democrat; it also indicated that voters were unwilling to elect a Roman Catholic who would potentially undermine majority Protestant values.

Following the loss of the 1928 election and his governorship in order to run for the presidency, Smith was left without a job. It is impossible to know whether to credit Raskob or Smith for the initial idea to build the skyscraper on the former site of the original Waldorf Astoria Hotel, but the two came to the conclusion that it would make for a simultaneously sensible and sensational joint project at the midpoint of their lives. Raskob would be a critical financier also tasked with recruiting other investors, and Smith was an affable public-facing, familiar figure to head the project. With the foundation of the Empire State Building Corporation and his new role as its president, Smith announced the plans for the record-breaking building on August 29, 1929. Its architects, Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates, designed a building that would surpass 100 stories.

Credit : Britannica 

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Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was a French civil engineer. A graduate of École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit viaduct. He is best known for the world-famous Eiffel Tower, designed by his company and built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, and his contribution to building the Statue of Liberty in New York. After his retirement from engineering, Eiffel focused on research into meteorology and aerodynamics, making significant contributions in both fields.

The basic design of the Eiffel Tower was introduced to Eiffel by Eiffel et Compagnie engineers Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier. They imagined “a great pylon, consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals.”

Eiffel agreed to build upon their vision. He, along with a team of top engineers and architects—including Koechlin, Nouguier, and Stephen Sauvestre, who designed the tower's signature arches—envisioned a three-leveled, 1,063-foot tower made of wrought iron.

In addition to showcasing his engineering skills, Eiffel intended to commemorate the French Revolution with his tower, as the World's Fair would fall 100 years after its onset. Thus, to Eiffel, the edifice was much more than an entrance; it was “an expression of France's gratitude.”

Credit : My Modern Met

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The Eiffel Tower gets taller by up to 6 inches during the summer, when the temperature reaches as high as 40°C. Extreme heat causes the metal at the base to expand, increasing the height of the 300-metre-tall tower. It also causes the top of the tower to tilt away from the sun by up to 7 inches.

One of the reasons the Eiffel Tower is still as dazzling as ever is because it adapts to its environment and all types of weather conditions: wind, cold, rain, snow, frost, heat, etc. Like any metal, puddled iron is sensitive to variations in temperature and so reacts to high temperatures in summer and low or even negative temperatures in winter.

When temperatures rise, the Tower increases in size! This is a natural physical phenomenon called thermal expansion. Heat causes an increase in volume that makes the Eiffel Tower a few centimeters taller. This expansion also causes the Tower to tilt slightly away from the sun. The sun only hits one of the 4 sides of the Tower creating an imbalance with the other 3 sides, that remain stable, thus causing the Eiffel Tower to lean. In this way, the sun’s movement over the course of a clear day can cause the top of the Tower to move in a more or less circular curve measuring approximately 15 centimeters in diameter.

Conversely, when cold winter weather arrives, the metal structure contracts and it can lose a few centimeters as well!

Suffice it to say that these changes are natural and infinitesimal and have no impact on the robustness of the structure. They are also absolutely imperceptible to visitors and observers. On the other hand, high winds can cause it to wobble or vibrate somewhat, without damaging the structure. Because the engineers at Eiffel’s company had 20 years experience designing metal viaducts, the Tower was truly (with its curved shapes and edges) designed to minimize wind resistance! But of course, when the wind exceeds certain limits we close the top floor, or even the whole Tower, to protect the public and our staff from the risks posed by turbulent weather conditions. 

Credit : Tour Eiffel 

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The Tibetan Plateau is also called the Plateau of Tibet or the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, or the inland plateau of Asia. It is the largest and highest plateau in the world with an average elevation of around 4,500 meters (14,800 ft).

The Tibetan Plateau is known as "the roof of the world" and "the third pole". Most of its area is in China's Tibet and Qinghai provinces. Here is interesting geographical, historical, cultural, and travel-related information so that you can know all about “the roof of the world”.

With the Pamir Plateau to its west and the Loess Plateau in the East, the Tibetan Plateau starts from the southern margin of the Himalayas and stretches northward to the northern edge of the Kunlun Mountains and the Altun Mountain.

It is about 2,800km (1,700 miles) wide from east to west and up to 1,500 km (900 miles) across from north to south, with a total area of about 2.5 million square kilometers (1 million square miles).

Almost a quarter of the land area of China is the Tibetan plateau. Most of the Plateau is in Tibet and a part of it is in Qinghai. Not all of Tibet is part of the plateau though since there are lowlands in the southeast in Nyingchi and Shannan.

Credit : China Highlights 

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Keeping clean

When reading the printed matter on the wrapper of a bar of toilet soap, you see the following: TFM = 75% written in bold letters.

What is the meaning of TFM and what is its significance?

The chief ingredients of soap are fats manufacturers either use animal fats or a vegetable oil, like coconut oil-and an alkali, usually caustic soda. The fats are the most important part of the soap.

TFM stands for Total Fatty Matter. This expresses the real soap content in the toilet soap. If TFM is given as 75% it means that the actual soap content is 75%, while the remaining portion consists of additives, which make it foam, give it its colour, or keep it hard.

The higher the TFM percentage, the better is the quality of the soap. It is binding on the manufacturer to state how much fatty material there is in the soap.

Crystals under pressure

What is piezoelectricity? How is it produced?

Electricity resulting from the application of mechanical pressure on certain crystals like quartz and tourmaline is called piezoelectricity. When these crystals are subjected to mechanical strain, a voltage is produced across their opposite faces. Conversely when a voltage is applied to such crystals, they vibrate.

Piezoelectric materials are used for converting mechanical strain into an electrical signal in such devices as microphones and phonograph pickups. The converse effect in which a mechanical output is derived from an electrical signal output is used in such devices as headphones and quartz watches.

The phenomenon of piezoelectricity was discovered in the 1880s.

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Marine One, any aircraft of the U.S. Marine Corps transporting the president of the United States. Strictly speaking, Marine One is the call sign adopted by a Marine aircraft while the president is aboard. However, in common usage, it has come to mean any of the state-of-the-art helicopters reserved for the president.

Although the U.S. military had adopted helicopters in the 1940s, safety concerns led the Secret Service to prohibit the president from flying in them. However, that policy changed the following decade as the escalating Cold War increased the potential for an emergency evacuation in the event of a nuclear attack. Officials ultimately settled on the Bell H-13J, which was relatively slow and small—accommodating just one pilot and two passengers—but noted for its safety record. In a test run known as “Operation Alert,” Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first president to fly in a helicopter, on July 12, 1957, when he was transported from the White House to Camp David. The Bell was flown by a U.S. Air Force pilot; also aboard was a Secret Service agent..

Helicopters soon became indispensable in presidential travel—both within the United States and abroad—though the uncomfortable Bell was quickly replaced by larger models. Since the Air Force only operated smaller-sized helicopters, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps assumed responsibility. When flown by the former, the aircraft was designated Army One, while the latter was identified as Marine One.

While the first presidential helicopters offered few amenities, later versions became increasingly sophisticated. The current models can fly more than 150 miles (241 km) per hour and feature ballistic armor and antimissile countermeasures. In addition, the green-and-white helicopters have electromagnetic-pulse protection in the event of a nuclear explosion. As a further protective measure, a decoy helicopter flies alongside Marine One. The relatively spacious interior, which can accommodate at least 14 passengers, includes a bathroom. When the helicopter lands, a Marine is waiting outside to greet the president, regardless of the location. The vice president travels in Marine Two.

Different helicopter models have been used over the years. The Sikorsky VH-3A was introduced during the John F. Kennedy administration, and the VH-3D entered service during Jimmy Carter’s presidency. The latter were supplemented with the VH-60N in the 1980s. In 2014 work began on a fleet of VH-92 helicopters, which were based on the Sikorsky S-92. The projected cost for each aircraft was more than $237 million.

Credit : Britannica 

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Abraham Lincoln was very distinctive looking, mostly due to his height and thin frame, but also because of what he wore.

Although Lincoln was not a particularly fashionable man, but like most politicians he knew personal appearance was a great way to make him stand out in a crowd, particularly while campaigning during an election.

As a result, Lincoln chose clothes and accessories with a distinctive silhouette or shape, although the items themselves were often plain and sometimes faded and worn. These fashion items later became Lincoln’s famous trademarks.

Lincoln had a few suits but his most famous suit was the one he was wearing the night he was shot at Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865.

That suit consisted of a custom-made black double-breasted Brooks Brothers coat made of wool. The coat had a hand-embroided silk lining that featured an eagle carrying a banner that read “One Country, One Destiny” which is a phrase that comes from an 1837 speech given by one of Lincoln’s role models, Senator Daniel Webster.

In addition to the coat, Lincoln also wore a shawl-collared, single-breasted, four-pocket black wool vest and black wool trousers with a waistband, fly front, metal suspender buttons and front pockets with a single button closure.

After Lincoln’s assassination, Mary Todd Lincoln gave the suit to Lincoln’s favorite doorman, Alphonse Donn. The Donn family kept the coat in the family for over a century and allowed souvenir seekers to cut away swatches of the bloodstained lining. The coat was later donated to Ford’s Theater where it is now on display to the public.

Credit : Civil War Saga 

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Construction began when the first cornerstone was laid in October of 1792. Although President Washington oversaw the construction of the house, he never lived in it. It was not until 1800, when the White House was nearly completed, that its first residents, President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, moved in. 

In 1842 the visit to the United States of the English novelist Charles Dickens brought an official invitation to the White House. After his calls at the White House door went unanswered, Dickens let himself in and walked through the mansion from room to room on the lower and upper floors. Finally coming upon a room filled with nearly two dozen people, he was shocked and appalled to see many of them spitting on the carpet. Dickens later wrote, “I take it for granted the Presidential housemaids have high wages.” Until the Civil War, however, most White House servants were enslaved people. Moreover, the wages of all White House employees—as well as the expenses for running the White House, including staging official functions—were paid for by the president. Not until 1909 did Congress provide appropriations to pay White House servants.

Dickens was not the only foreign visitor to be disappointed with the White House. On a trip to Washington just before the Civil War, Aleksandr Borisovich Lakier, a Russian nobleman, wrote that “the home of the president…is barely visible behind the trees.” The White House, he said, was “sufficient for a private family and not at all conforming to the expectations of a European.” Subsequent changes to the building in the 19th century were relatively minor. The interior was redecorated during various presidential administrations and modern conveniences were regularly added, including a refrigerator in 1845, gas lighting in 1849, and electric lighting in 1891.

The White House was the scene of mourning after the assassination of Pres. Abraham Lincoln (1861–65). While Mary Todd Lincoln lay in her room for five weeks grieving for her husband, many White House holdings were looted. Responding to charges that she had stolen government property when she left the White House, she angrily inventoried all the items she had taken with her, including gifts of quilts and waxworks from well-wishers.

Credit :  Britannica 

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