Question
When the Empire State Building Was New
W.M. Akers
Today, New York's Empire State Building is one of the most famous structures in the world. It
stands hundreds of feet taller than the skyscrapers that surround it, and is visible from far away
in New Jersey and Long Island. But it isn't the tallest building in the world. In fact, since the
recent completion of One World Trade Center, it isn't even the tallest building in New York City!
But when the Empire State Building was constructed, it was more than just another skyscraper.
It was the tallest, most remarkable building on earth—and it stayed that way for close to forty
years. To understand what people thought about the Empire State Building when it was first
constructed, we can look at original newspaper reports from The New York Times. These are
called primary sources, because they were written by people who witnessed history firstͲhand.
With these New York Times reports, we can see the building through the eyes of the past, and
perhaps have a chance to appreciate this most famous skyscraper as though it were new.
***
The Empire State Building was built at the site of the famous WaldorfͲAstoria Hotel, a lavish
structure that, by 1929, was no longer up to the demands of the modern world. A corporation
headed by former New York governor Alfred E. Smith proposed to build an office building
there—not just any office building, but the greatest in the world. At this time, there was fierce
competition to see who could build the tallest building on earth. The nearby Chrysler Building
was set to claim the title, but Smith and his company wanted to steal it from them, by building
something so big that it would be years before anyone could top it.
1
2
3
When the Empire State Building Was New
© 2013 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.
There wasjust one little problem:theGreatDepression. The stockmarket crashed atthe end of 1929,
destroying banks, emptying savings accounts and leaving millions out of work. But the men behind
the Empire State Building would not be stopped. They finished tearing down the old WaldorfͲAstoria
by the beginning of 1930, and on March 17—St. Patrick's Day—the work on the skyscraper began.
"Time was an essential element," wrote Smith, to complete "the greatest structural
accomplishment" the city had ever seen.
Because height was of the utmost importance, the building was designed from the top down.
At the very top would be a "dirigible mooring mast." A dirigible is a kind of giant blimp, built to
fly across the Atlantic Ocean in the days before jets. Although now that may seem silly, at the
time, dirigibles were cutting edge technology, and the mooring mast, according to Smith, was
"a logical development of this day of air transportation." Moreover, the 200Ͳfoot mast would
allow the building to solidly surpass the Chrysler Building in height.
The mooring mast was planned to reach nearly 1,300 feet above Fifth Avenue. Below that was
the building—as wide as a city block on the first floor, but narrower as it went up. The places
where it got narrower are called "setbacks," and they started at the sixth floor, a design the
architects said, "will save space and assure light and air to neighbors."
"We believe we have solved the problem of light and air in congested districts," said Mr. Smith.
Construction began on the bottom floors even before the designs for the top floors had been
finalized. Once it started, it went fast. Times reporter C. G. Poore described the process as "a
chase up into the sky, with the steel workers going first and all the other trades following madly
after them." To illustrate this, Poore produced "some staggering figures":
The building of the skyscraper represents an investment of $50,000,000 and all other
figures are in proportion. More than 50,000 tons of steel, 10,000,000 bricks, and 200,000
cubic feet of stone will be used before the frame is completed. There will be seventyͲfive
miles of water mains and 2,000,000 feet of electric light and power wiring...More than
3,000 men are daily at work...Among them are 225 carpenters, 290 bricklayers, 384 brick
laborers, 328 arch laborers, 107 derrick men.
Each day, those men walked to work past long unemployment lines, which reminded them how
lucky they were to have such wellͲpaying jobs. Building the Empire State Building was a
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5
6
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8
10
9
When the Empire State Building Was New
© 2013 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.
dangerousjob, performed without hardhats, harnesses, or any of the safety equipment required
today. Imagine walking out on a narrow steel beam, 1,000 feet above the street, and then having
to work up there all day!
On each floor, Poore tells us, there was "a miniature railway system," to haul the steel, wood
and marble brought up from street level. And to keep the men from having to go all the way
down to eat lunch, there were "restaurants at various levels of the building" designed for the
workers. At night, when the bosses went home, the workers could relax. They would pick a
specific floor of the building and throw a party—laughing and having fun, knowing that they
were higher above the city than any of the richest men in town.
***
The building was finished in just over a year. Of all the words written afterwards, perhaps the
most interesting come from Mrs. Alice Liddell Hargreaves, an elderly English woman who visited
the tower soon after its completion. Seventy years earlier, Mrs. Hargreaves had known a quiet
country pastor named Lewis Carroll, who used her as the inspiration for his most famous book:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Now much older than the character she inspired, Mrs.
Hargreaves "seemed almost as excited with her newest adventures in the wonderland of New
York."
The Empire State Building, she said, was "just like the tumble down [the] rabbit hole."
Explain the author's message (or the overall idea that the author is trying to convey) in the passage "When the Empire State Building Was New," using 2 pieces of evidence to support your ideas.
and make it short
W.M. Akers
Today, New York's Empire State Building is one of the most famous structures in the world. It
stands hundreds of feet taller than the skyscrapers that surround it, and is visible from far away
in New Jersey and Long Island. But it isn't the tallest building in the world. In fact, since the
recent completion of One World Trade Center, it isn't even the tallest building in New York City!
But when the Empire State Building was constructed, it was more than just another skyscraper.
It was the tallest, most remarkable building on earth—and it stayed that way for close to forty
years. To understand what people thought about the Empire State Building when it was first
constructed, we can look at original newspaper reports from The New York Times. These are
called primary sources, because they were written by people who witnessed history firstͲhand.
With these New York Times reports, we can see the building through the eyes of the past, and
perhaps have a chance to appreciate this most famous skyscraper as though it were new.
***
The Empire State Building was built at the site of the famous WaldorfͲAstoria Hotel, a lavish
structure that, by 1929, was no longer up to the demands of the modern world. A corporation
headed by former New York governor Alfred E. Smith proposed to build an office building
there—not just any office building, but the greatest in the world. At this time, there was fierce
competition to see who could build the tallest building on earth. The nearby Chrysler Building
was set to claim the title, but Smith and his company wanted to steal it from them, by building
something so big that it would be years before anyone could top it.
1
2
3
When the Empire State Building Was New
© 2013 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.
There wasjust one little problem:theGreatDepression. The stockmarket crashed atthe end of 1929,
destroying banks, emptying savings accounts and leaving millions out of work. But the men behind
the Empire State Building would not be stopped. They finished tearing down the old WaldorfͲAstoria
by the beginning of 1930, and on March 17—St. Patrick's Day—the work on the skyscraper began.
"Time was an essential element," wrote Smith, to complete "the greatest structural
accomplishment" the city had ever seen.
Because height was of the utmost importance, the building was designed from the top down.
At the very top would be a "dirigible mooring mast." A dirigible is a kind of giant blimp, built to
fly across the Atlantic Ocean in the days before jets. Although now that may seem silly, at the
time, dirigibles were cutting edge technology, and the mooring mast, according to Smith, was
"a logical development of this day of air transportation." Moreover, the 200Ͳfoot mast would
allow the building to solidly surpass the Chrysler Building in height.
The mooring mast was planned to reach nearly 1,300 feet above Fifth Avenue. Below that was
the building—as wide as a city block on the first floor, but narrower as it went up. The places
where it got narrower are called "setbacks," and they started at the sixth floor, a design the
architects said, "will save space and assure light and air to neighbors."
"We believe we have solved the problem of light and air in congested districts," said Mr. Smith.
Construction began on the bottom floors even before the designs for the top floors had been
finalized. Once it started, it went fast. Times reporter C. G. Poore described the process as "a
chase up into the sky, with the steel workers going first and all the other trades following madly
after them." To illustrate this, Poore produced "some staggering figures":
The building of the skyscraper represents an investment of $50,000,000 and all other
figures are in proportion. More than 50,000 tons of steel, 10,000,000 bricks, and 200,000
cubic feet of stone will be used before the frame is completed. There will be seventyͲfive
miles of water mains and 2,000,000 feet of electric light and power wiring...More than
3,000 men are daily at work...Among them are 225 carpenters, 290 bricklayers, 384 brick
laborers, 328 arch laborers, 107 derrick men.
Each day, those men walked to work past long unemployment lines, which reminded them how
lucky they were to have such wellͲpaying jobs. Building the Empire State Building was a
4
5
6
7
8
10
9
When the Empire State Building Was New
© 2013 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved.
dangerousjob, performed without hardhats, harnesses, or any of the safety equipment required
today. Imagine walking out on a narrow steel beam, 1,000 feet above the street, and then having
to work up there all day!
On each floor, Poore tells us, there was "a miniature railway system," to haul the steel, wood
and marble brought up from street level. And to keep the men from having to go all the way
down to eat lunch, there were "restaurants at various levels of the building" designed for the
workers. At night, when the bosses went home, the workers could relax. They would pick a
specific floor of the building and throw a party—laughing and having fun, knowing that they
were higher above the city than any of the richest men in town.
***
The building was finished in just over a year. Of all the words written afterwards, perhaps the
most interesting come from Mrs. Alice Liddell Hargreaves, an elderly English woman who visited
the tower soon after its completion. Seventy years earlier, Mrs. Hargreaves had known a quiet
country pastor named Lewis Carroll, who used her as the inspiration for his most famous book:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Now much older than the character she inspired, Mrs.
Hargreaves "seemed almost as excited with her newest adventures in the wonderland of New
York."
The Empire State Building, she said, was "just like the tumble down [the] rabbit hole."
Explain the author's message (or the overall idea that the author is trying to convey) in the passage "When the Empire State Building Was New," using 2 pieces of evidence to support your ideas.
and make it short
Answers
GPT-4o mini
The author's message in "When the Empire State Building Was New" is to highlight the remarkable construction journey and historical significance of the Empire State Building during its time.
First, the author emphasizes the building's groundbreaking height and ambition, noting that it was designed to exceed the Chrysler Building and was seen as the "greatest structural accomplishment" of its time. This ambition was driven by a desire to symbolize resilience during the Great Depression, as construction continued despite economic hardships.
Second, the author illustrates the human aspect of the construction process, describing the workers’ determination and sense of fortune in having well-paying jobs at a time when many were unemployed. The mention of the dangerous conditions the workers faced without safety equipment further emphasizes their bravery and the magnitude of the project, reinforcing the idea that the Empire State Building was not just a skyscraper, but a symbol of hope and progress.
First, the author emphasizes the building's groundbreaking height and ambition, noting that it was designed to exceed the Chrysler Building and was seen as the "greatest structural accomplishment" of its time. This ambition was driven by a desire to symbolize resilience during the Great Depression, as construction continued despite economic hardships.
Second, the author illustrates the human aspect of the construction process, describing the workers’ determination and sense of fortune in having well-paying jobs at a time when many were unemployed. The mention of the dangerous conditions the workers faced without safety equipment further emphasizes their bravery and the magnitude of the project, reinforcing the idea that the Empire State Building was not just a skyscraper, but a symbol of hope and progress.