I think that was more of a concept than a reality! It's funny just to picture some dumb tourists ambling down a wobbly gangplank 1400 feet above the city. But in the early days of aviation, people were evidently taking the concept seriously.
It was in the mid-90’s last time I went up to the observation deck of the Empire State Building. My experience then was in most ways very different. I was struck by the red hanging banners with which the ground floor lobby was festooned; combined with the large posters and the grand architecture, my first reaction was that it looked like some alternate reality Nazi Germany from the original Star Trek television series. Quite beautiful but somehow ... fascist.
There was little in the way of a line until the 80th floor elevator switch, and even then it wasn’t really all that bad. The view was nice, quite breezy up there with the wind blowing up. I was informed that in past, less enlightened days, people would toss handkerchiefs and such off to watch it come wafting back. Not anymore with the security fencing, the building attracts nuts.
The budding behavior to match the graphics was on display at the restrooms, though. Chunky, rude ethnic women in too-tight blue uniforms barking orders to the tremendous line, single file, men and women all lined up together. Men’s room, women’s room, didn’t matter. A toilet in any of them became unoccupied, in went the next person. So very fair for men to have to wait just as long as women, you see.
All in all I enjoyed it since I love architecture. The old setup for dirigibles was fascinating although I can’t imagine coming off a passenger blimp tied to the top of a building of that height and marching down some sort of ramp that no doubt would have been shifting in the ever-present wind. But, I hated the mentality of the people running the show. I see it’s only gotten worse.
In all honesty, I’d have enjoyed seeing the Chrysler Building more, up close and from a similar vantage point, but to my knowledge that was not possible.
I think that was more of a concept than a reality! It's funny just to picture some dumb tourists ambling down a wobbly gangplank 1400 feet above the city. But in the early days of aviation, people were evidently taking the concept seriously.
I grew up in NYC. Around 1965, I was in college and dating a young woman who was living at the Manhattan YWCA while attending school. One Saturday night near the end of our date, we decided to go up to the top of the ESB. As I best recall, there was no ticket charge because one did not need a ticket. We took the elevator up and had to switch elevators to reach the top which at the time was quite open with minimal guard rails. Up and down within a half hour with no wait and for free.