WORLD’S TALLEST BUILDING

Hokitika Guardian, 13 August 1931, Page 2

WORLD’S TALLEST BUILDING

AMAZING HEIGHT

GIANT STRUCTURE IN NEW YORK. “This way to the 102nd floor!” This is the new thrill that New York is enjoying now that the State Empire Building is open to the public. The world's tallest building has been open only a few weeks, and already thousands of people have paid their four sharing apiece to ascend 1250 feet and gaze on the city far below, state: the London “Daily .vlail.” They see Fifth Avenue and Broadway as slender black ribbons cutting their way sharply through the manmade canyons of the city. GAZING FAR BEhOW.

They see lilliputian motor-cars halting or moving forward in groups, appearing like a slow process:on. Th.y see trains gliding along like worms and people as ants scarcely moving. They see Central Park’s 843 acres lodk'ed no bigger than a football field, and neighbouring buildings, monsters of steel and stone when viewed from below, dwarf ted to insignificance. Steamers of leviathan size rest at their wharves in appearance like rowboats, and the mighty Hudson shines like a thin silver ribbon. But the greatest thrill is to observe the .shadow of the State Empire Building lying across East River and over 'Brooklyn on the farther side. At night, millions of lights—lines of them on all sides with Broadway marked as a kaleidoscope of flickering colour. Fugitive dim lights far below speak of motor-cars and omnibuses passing through the streets. Awed by the solemnity a visitor stood breathless, until awakened from his dream by the music of a jazz band which floated up playing “There ■Oughta be a Moonlight Saving Time.” PERFECTLY STEADY. “Is it my imagination, or do you think this building: is moving?” asked a nervous woman. “I think it’s 1 moving all right,” replied her companion. A scientificminded person balanced a pencil on the window-sill. It stood quite steady. The souvenir shop does a good clay’s business. People buy knives, wooden elephants, paperweights and postcards all; bearing the magic words, “Empire State Building.” Some sit down right away and send off letters and postcards so that friends may know that the thrill has been accomplished. Then they step to a slot in the wall and send their messages dropping down, . down, down to the ground floor. Someone aßked the liftman what would happen if the lift went wrong, "Nothing,” he replied promptly. "It would slide about six feet and then stop automatically, Thousands of tests have proved this,” ANOTHER WONDER BUILDING. Another wonder American building is the Chrysler, which has its “Cloud Club,” sixty-six floors up, where business men lunch daily. The name is more than fanciful, for on dull, rainy days, workers high up often leave streets free of fog to find themselves in the clouds when they sit down to the day’s routine. Here are the vivid impressions of an office girl who works some thirty-five storeys up : “New York girls take to skyscrapers as ducks take to water. They are our natural habitat. We prefer to work on the thirtieth floor rather than on the third, and on the fiftieth in preference to the thirtieth.

“There is a thrill in spending one’s day up so high. There is a ‘kick’ in it that never wears out. There is a sense of power and elation. At dusk the city is a panorama of beauty, with its million lighted windows held in invisible towers. Everyone from the office J boy to the president must have a look. It is- like the backdrop at the theatre. It is exciting. It is unforgettable.

“And the skyscraper has its practical advantages. In summer our office up here is untouched by the scorching pavements below. When the sun shines, it pours in through the windows, but there is always a breeze. The skyscraper is so convenient, It has its restaurant, its beamy parlour, its little group of specialty shops catering to thworking girl." BLASE BUSINESS GIRLS. The building race between the Chrysler Building and the Bank of 'Manhattan—won by the Chrysler—aroused the keenest enthusiasm, and the Empire 'State is undoubtedly the city s pride. Yet even about this wonder the" New York business girl can be a bit blase. When the final touches were being added, two business girls were walking up Fifth Avenue. One of them remarked, “Well, I see they ve neailj (finished it now.” As they drew nearer to this white and silver • structure which, even to the sophisticated New Yorker, is a little breath-taking, the other answered “High, isn’t it? But I suppose in a few years we will see them twice as n.g.i and think a thing about it.”