The Empire State Building Trivia Quiz

Answer: William Lamb

William Lamb (1893-1952), who designed many major buildings through the United States, was the main architect behind the design of the Empire State Building. With its notable Art Deco style, this mighty structure is almost 1,454 feet high, and features both an indoor and outdoor observation deck. Seventy-three elevators are constantly working, ferrying people up and down every day, but if you care to challenge yourself the hard way, there are 1,860 steps to trudge up instead.

Answer: The Waldorf Astoria

The original Waldorf was constructed in 1893, with the Astoria opening soon after in 1897. Both were razed to the ground in 1929 to enable the construction of the Empire State Building in their place. This seems a real shame. They were so lovely, and with a fascinating history to boot.

They had an unhappy beginning though, with the first one built by William Astor who had fought with his aunt, right next door to her house there. Prior to the Astors and their fights, however, the site had been a farm, with a stream running across its centre.

It is difficult, looking at the Empire State Building today, to imagine cows and a gentle stream once meandering there.

Answer: Saint Patrick

The site's excavation began earlier in January 1930, but work on the building itself got off to a flying start on Saint Patrick's Day that same year. Interestingly, the plans for the building had been designed from the top down, which is a rather unusual way to go about things - but it worked.

It only only took a year to complete the entire structure and it was officially opened in May 1931. That's absolutely amazing. Governor Smith's grandchildren cut the ribbon on that day, and, in Washington DC, President Herbert Hoover turned on the building's lights with a push of a button there.

Answer: Mohawk

The Mohawk people were from the most eastern of the tribes of the Iroquois Confederation. Their homeland stretched from the Mohawk river in New York State to the mountains of Vermont. In all, 3,400 workers were involved in the construction of the Empire State Building.

The Mohawk iron workers comprised some 350 of these. Five of the total workers on the site met their deaths during the course of the construction.

Answer: False

Because the building's opening took place in the early years of the Great Depression, with one quarter of the nation out of work, many of the rooms in the Empire State Building were unoccupied for some time after its opening. Other factors contributing to those vacancies were its location several blocks away from Grand Central and Penn Stations and the major bus terminal.

The building wasn't fully occupied until 1950, and (rather cruelly) this led New Yorkers to refer to it as "The Empty State Building".

It also led to the sale of the building in 1951 to another company. And the asking price? $51 million dollars, the biggest deal in the history of real estate up until that time. The building had cost almost $41 million to construct. That equates, in 2015 monetary values, to some $635 million dollars.

Answer: A B25 bomber flew into it

Flying through thick fog on 28 July, 1945, the pilot of a B25 bomber, Lieutenant Colonel William Franklin Smith Jnr, completely lost his bearings and flew straight into the north side of the building. One engine went straight through the building and landed an entire block away, where the fire it caused destroyed a penthouse.

The other engine and parts of the plane went straight down the elevator shaft. Incredibly, and although fourteen people lost their lives in this disaster, the elevator operator, Betty Lou Oliver, on duty at the time, survived a fall that saw her elevator plummet seventy-five stories.

Answer: Elvita Adams

Since its construction, and up until 2015, some thirty people have attempted suicide by leaping from the Empire State Building. Two survived. One was a man who was lucky enough to land on a ledge one floor below. He only suffered minor injuries. The other was Elvita Adams.

In 1979, while suffering from depression, she made her way to the 86th floor, scaled the seven foot fence, on the top of which were steel spikes, and leapt. In what can only be seen as miraculous intervention, she was blown back onto the ledge of the 85th floor. Suffering a broken hip, she was grabbed by a guard before she could jump again, and taken to a mental institution. On her eventual discharge, she made a successful career for herself as a stand up comic, with part of her routine based on that incident. I probably would have joined a convent.

Answer: Super windows

The Empire State Building has 6,500 windows. These were all removed in 2009, and replaced by another 6,500 "super windows" manufactured on the site. The super windows allow light to pass through, but not heat. This saved air conditioning capital costs of $17 million dollars, a figure which is incredible.

Other renovations included waterproofing, restructuring the observation deck, relocating the gift shop to another floor, and other retrofitting.

Answer: Airships

The 103rd "floor" of the Empire State Building was designed to be used as a disembarkation site for passengers travelling by airship. These airships were meant to dock at a mooring site on the top of the building, with travellers exiting via the dirigibles' gangplanks.

This idea was soon abandoned, with only one airship ever docking, because of the dangerous updrafts shooting up through the elevator shafts. Today this floor is used to hold electrical equipment and the work gear for maintenance workers who need to access the building's spire.

A powerful broadcast tower was added to the top of the spire at a later date as well.

Answer: James Doohan

Wouldn't you have loved to be on that? James Doohan, the famous actor who played Scotty, the engineer of Star Trek's Enterprise during the early years of that great show's various series, lived from 1920-2005. In his role as the first pilot of the Empire State Building's Skyride, he tried to control a simulated flight that malfunctioned during a violent storm.

As he struggled to deal with everything, the flight zoomed the screaming, laughing passengers straight through "the subway, Coney Island, and FAO Schwartz, among other places". Oh, such fun! In 2002 however, the simulator was updated, with Kevin Bacon as the new pilot.

Instead of being pure fun, and even though it does feature a brief out of control segment, it is now shorter and much more educational in nature. How dull.