Empire State Building

On Friday my mom, sister and I went into the city to do something we had never done before: go up to the top of the Empire State Building. Though we have always lived in New York, we had never been up to the top, nor have we been to the Statue of Liberty. Rather than partaking in the normal experience- just waiting on line to go to the top, we got tickets for what is called the NY Skyride. If you do this, you go straight inside the building- no waiting on lines for 90 minutes. (that was the wait time when we got there)

First you go into a theater to see an overview movie of the NY skyline- while sitting in basically a ride car. Throughout the movie the car moved all around and jostled us- just think of a ride like Body Wars and you’ve got the idea.

Then we went to wait on the line, which was shorter for us. While waiting, everyone got to have their picture taken in front of a green screen, which would later be the Empire State Building. After, one of the attendants told everyone that if they wanted to get to the top faster, we could walk up the stairs. What seemed like a good decision at the time quickly turned into a bad one, as the stairs were getting steeper and steeper as we moved up each floor. Finally, after our legs began burning from the stairs, we reached the top.

That day, though extremely windy, was beautiful- every building could be seen from the top. There were no clouds and the skies were a nice shade of blue.

The Empire State Building was designed by Gregory Johnson and his architectural firm Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986 and is the second tallest skyscraper in the Americas. (surpassed by Chicago's Willis Tower) It is the 11th tallest skyscraper in the world and the 4th tallest freestanding structure in the Americas.