Posted Dec 1, 2011, 12:00 AM
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New Yorker for life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
Posts: 51,900
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^ The ESB could have used a little backup....where was the Chrysler?... 
http://www.newyorkology.com/archives...floor_of_2.php
High in the Sky: 103rd floor of Empire State Building
May 2, 2011
Quote:
Currently the tallest building in New York City, the Empire State Building opened up its 103rd deck to NewYorkology as part of a behind-the-scenes tour of its $550 million renovation project.
The normally off-limits 103rd floor is usually only seen by 30 to 40 celebrities each year, and more prosaically, people working with its television and radio transmitters and antennas. If you clamber up the narrow staircase behind the unmarked, locked door on the 102nd floor — and venture past the signs warning of high levels of radio-frequency radiation — you find yourself on a walkway encircling the small room. It’s wide open to the elements, with no fences and only a knee-high wall separating you from the void. It was fortunately calm on the day NewYorkology visited — clinging to the wall in a stiff wind would be scary.
The 102nd floor of the Empire State Building is as high as the public can go. It’s completely indoors, and access is provided to visitors who spend an extra $15 to visit. (The main public outdoor observation deck is on the 86th floor and costs $23 for an adult ticket.)
That extra $15 gets you a ticket on the single manually-operated elevator that takes you to the 102nd floor — the elevator has an altimeter with height markings instead of floor numbers — into a space that was originally designed as a dirigible boarding area. After early tests with Navy dirigibles, the winds and updrafts proved too unpredictable, and the plan was abandoned. The 102nd floor observatory is a cozy space crowded with the original Carnegie structural steel beams that support the building’s spire, and you can gaze out through single-pane windows. (The scratched-up, graffiti-laden glass of years past has been replaced, and the most you’ll encounter is a couple of smudges.)
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Stairway to the 103rd floor
Indoors on 103
Looking north from 103
Looking west from 103
Looking up from 103
A ladder to the space above the 103rd floor
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“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
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