The site that the Empire State Building was built on was once a farm purchased by the Astor family in 1827. Between 1893 and 1897, the esteemed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was built here. However, that pair of buildings was demolished in 1929 and the land made it into the hands of the Empire State Incorporated, a group of wealthy investors.

Architects Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates first designed a 50-story tower, then a 60-story tower and then the building just kept getting taller, the plan finally topping out at 102 stories.

In 1930, construction of the Empire State Building began. Its design immediately threatened the prominence of other towers under construction nearby, in what was referred to as the "race to the sky." In order to make sure that the tower would have unobstructed views of the city, and perhaps to determine that the Empire State would always appear taller than those around it, height restrictions were placed on neighboring buildings.

What remains amazing to this day was the breakneck speed with which the Empire State Building was built: the fully completed building was finished in less than a year. With 86 stories having been completed just sixth months after the columns were set.

At the height of fervor during its construction, 3,500 workers added a story per day to the tower.

Almost 60,000 tons of steel were used in the Empire State Building's construction, as well as millions of bricks, and 62,000 cubic yards of concrete poured.

Empire State Inc. feared that their building's initial leg-up on the Chrysler Building (just four feet) would not be enough. They worried that those designing the Chrysler may have hidden an antenna of some sort to be put up at the last minute.

The group of investors developing the Empire State Building claimed that by adding a mooring mast, which added an extra 200 feet atop the 1,050-foot tall skyscraper dirigibles and Zeppelins from Germany would be able to dock in Midtown, rather than New Jersey. Passengers would then descend down the tower, where they would reach the streets of New York in just seven minutes. Apparently, it was just too shameful to admit that the 200-foot tall addition to the building was merely for bragging rights. (The mooring mast proved itself entirely incapable of docking Zeppelins.)