Opened in 1931, the Empire State Building reigned as the world's tallest building for nearly 40 years until the World Trade Center surpassed it in 1970.
Reserve a timed-entry slot in advance and expect an airport-style security screening; visibility isn't guaranteed and the building doesn't refund for cloudy or hazy days.
This is the one deck in the city that cannot show you the Empire State Building, and that single fact settles a lot of arguments. What it offers instead is the middle of the island. Standing at 34th Street, with Manhattan running away from you in both directions, you get downtown and the harbor to the south and the Midtown wall to the north with Central Park beyond it. The Chrysler Building's crown sits close to the northeast, the Hudson and the New Jersey shore fill the west, and Queens and the East River bridges lie east.
The northern view has changed in the past decade. The slender supertalls along West 57th Street, Central Park Tower among them at some 1,550 feet, now stand between the observatory and the park, so Central Park arrives as green glimpsed through a colonnade of towers rather than as an open rectangle. If the park is what you came for, Top of the Rock has the better geometry.
The 86th-floor promenade is open air at 1,050 feet and wraps all four sides of the tower, so the walk around is the whole point; the south face, where the island narrows toward the harbor, rewards it most. A low wire mesh fence is the only barrier, with gaps wide enough to put a camera lens through, and you hear the street and feel the wind the entire time.
The 102nd floor, 200 feet higher at 1,250 feet, is a different proposition: enclosed, climate-controlled, and rebuilt in 2019 with the windows extended floor to ceiling and the room widened. It is quieter and much smaller, and there is always glass between you and the city. Height buys distance. The open deck below buys the sound of it.
20 W 34th St, New York, NY 10001 · Official site ↗
The Empire State Building is a 102-story, supertall skyscraper in the Midtown South neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. The building was designed in the Art Deco style by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and constructed between 1930 and 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of New York state. The building has a roof height of 1,250 feet (380 m) and stands a total of 1,454 feet (443.2 m) tall including its antenna. The Empire State Building was the world's tallest building until the North Tower of the World Trade Center was topped out in 1970; following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State Building was once more New York City's tallest building until it was surpassed in 2012 by One World Trade Center. As of 2025, the building is the eighth-tallest building in New York City, the tenth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States, and the 59th-tallest completed skyscraper in the world.
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