During my recent trip to New York, I was very fortunate to not only go to the very top of The Empire State Building, but to also grab some shots from inside too, which I will share with you today.  Since the terrible September 11 2001, Security has been stepped up within the Empire State Building in a very big way.

When you first go into The Empire State Building, which is located at 350 Fifth Avenue (between 33rd and 34th Streets) in New York City, you arrive in the main Reception area which is massive, and you find yourself surrounded by polished Marble, with Gold finishing’s.

Everything is geared up mainly for Tourists, with guides being placed in every possible area to prevent you getting lost, but also to guide you to the areas in which you are allowed.  Here’s a shot of myself standing proud next to the large engraving of The Empire State Building seen in the above photo.

After the above photo was shot by the very lovely @skydowning from Womworld/Nokia based in New York, we proceeded to go up to the first floor via an escalator. It was only then when I reached the first floor, I said to Sky, damn, I bet its busy here in the summer time, as there were loads of guide ropes, and organised queue lines for when there is a lot of tourists there. Luckily in March its not too busy, so we found ourselves walking straight through, and around these roped off areas.

Walking through to the next very large room we came to an area with a small queue which was for visitors to have their photo taken against a green background. This is to drum up more revenue from tourists as they then sell these photos on the way out with the green background filled in by computer to show the New York Skyline.

Next, after getting through the photo area we proceeded through a few corridors whilst admiring the amazing finish of the interior decor, it was breathtaking, I could just imagine how much all of this amazing marble, and gold/silver finish must of cost. I will share with you at the end of this post some interesting facts I have found out about The Empire State Building, including how much it did indeed cost to make, the height of the building, and more including details of a Plane that crashed into the building too many moons ago.

Ok, back to our trip to get to the top, after being guided along through the beautiful interior, we then arrived at what looked very out of place.  It was the newly privately own Security which is now in force, and it looked, and behaved just like the airport security you find.

And once through security, and Xray, we then came to the ticket sales which had a small queue, but we were soon at the front as the staff here were working very efficiently.

There were two tick options, one being going up to the 86th floor exterior Observatory, and the second being to go right to the very top, to the 102nd floor internal Observatory, this ticket included both levels, so it was 102nd floor here we come.!

The photo below is what greeted us at the 86th floor of The Empire State Building. It was very windy, and busy, but plenty of room to get those photos!

Then after many photos, and videos shot on my prized Nokia E7, we proceeded up a service lift to the 102nd floor. Here is a view of the 102nd floor Observatory from the 86th floor. The photos don’t do the scale any justice at all, as you can imagine, this building was colossal! Of course I preferred the real deal photo of myself instead of a green screen computer mockup, so here’s yours truly.

Here is a poster which shows the levels which was located to the right of the service lift we had to get in, which was quite small, and was operated manually with the old fashioned circular winding switch set up seen in many old films. Two doors closed us in, and up we went.

And finally we were there on the 102nd floor of The Empire State Building!

After several photos, it was started to become quite crowded, so we decided to head down. I can only imagine just how busy this place must be in the summer time, and one would not recommend a visit if you are claustrophobic.

Empire State represented by ES found on the marble floor of the first of three lifts.

Then down those escalators I mentioned earlier.

A short walk to the exit I spotted these two beautiful things on the higher wall, so zoomed in a snapped them whilst I could. Not sure if they are actual working example of what look like some kind of timepiece, but stunning in detail to say the least.

Then just before exiting the building, Sky showed me one of the night clubs inside The Empire State Building.

The photo above was all I could grab due to door being locked, however, whilst taking about the inside of the Empire State Building, do you know what’s inside all of those floors?  Not quite what you would expect, no offices, just rent able space. Now as mentioned at the start of this post, I promised you some interesting facts, ad trivia about The Empire State Building.

In 1945 a 10 tonne plane crashed into the side of TESB, and more of the information on its details and how it happened can be found here.

How tall is it?

There are several numbers to describe the height of the Empire State Building. The total height of the building, including the lightning rod, is 1,454 feet. The height of the building from the ground to its tip is usually given as 1,250 feet. The measurement from the ground to the 102nd floor observatory is 1,224 feet and from the ground to the 86th floor observatory is 1,050 feet.

What’s inside the Empire State Building?

The Empire State Building is mostly filled with rentable space for businesses. No one lives in the building (inadequate bathing facilities). The building is also used as a tourist attraction and offers views from the 86th and 102nd floors.

How much did the Empire State Building cost to build?

The building itself cost $24,718,000 to build (nearly half the expected cost because of the Great Depression). Including the property on which the building sits, the total cost for the Empire State Building was $40,948,900.

More interesting facts about the Empire State Building can be found here.

You can find all of my New York photos on my flickr account here where you will find over 440 photos. I hope you have enjoyed my post today of my trip to The Big Apple.  I have a couple more posts to publish from this great trip, including NYPD Blue set, The Shorty Awards, and more
.

Related posts:

1. Part 1 – Mickyfin’s Journey to New York The Empire State
2. Nokia E7 HD Videos From The Top Of The Empire State Building New York
3. N97 just rebooted part way through me replying to a message in Gravity.
4. flickr Mania Takes Over Micky’s Household

Tags: Desktop Computing

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 19th, 2011 at 13:38 and is filed under NOKIA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.