The Empire State Building was completed in 1931, right in the middle of the Great Depression. Because nothing says "we're doing fine" like building the world's tallest building while everyone's broke.
It was built in just 410 days - that's faster than most people can agree on paint colors. Workers were literally installing windows while other workers were still welding the frame above them. OSHA would have a field day.
For years after it opened, the building was so empty that New Yorkers nicknamed it the "Empty State Building." The owners had to keep the lights on in vacant offices just to make it look occupied from the outside. The original flex became a very expensive bluff.
The spire was originally designed as a mooring mast for zeppelins. They tried it exactly once before realizing that docking an airship to a skyscraper in Manhattan's swirling winds was, perhaps, not the brightest idea.
