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14 / NEW YORK / Empire State Building<br />
HIGHLIGHT / 15<br />
High Five<br />
Built on Fifth Avenue in 1931,<br />
the Empire State Building<br />
was named after the moniker<br />
for New York State.<br />
This Art Deco skyscraper was erected<br />
on the site of the first Waldorf-Astoria<br />
hotel, which was knocked down to make<br />
room for it. The Empire State Building is<br />
so big that it has its own postcode. At<br />
381-m tall, it was the tallest building in<br />
the world for almost 40 years until the<br />
North Tower of the World Trade Center<br />
went up in 1970.<br />
The idea for the Empire State Building<br />
was conceived during the Roaring<br />
Twenties, when the US economy was at<br />
its peak and ambition in the construction<br />
industry was just as high as the plans<br />
tabled for what the media called, the<br />
“race into the sky”; a competition<br />
between 40 Wall Street, the Chrysler<br />
Building and the Empire State Building,<br />
which was built last but won the “race”.<br />
Photographer Lewis Hine famously<br />
captured the death-defying construction<br />
by steelworkers as they hung from the<br />
side of the building at great heights<br />
without safety equipment. While taking<br />
pictures of the workers, Hine also got<br />
himself into precarious positions; a feat<br />
that, arguably, remained unsurpassed<br />
until the recent invention of the “selfie”.<br />
Kenya Airways will begin flying to JFK Airport<br />
in New York from Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta<br />
International Airport on 28 October.<br />
text: Ben Clark image: Getty Images
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