The greatest building ever undertaken by man is completed. "Empire State" is now ready for its great multitude of tenants and visitors-its stands dominant today in New York's skyline, 86 stories of steel and stone, at 34th and Fifth Avenue- the symbol of a new epoch for this internationally famous site.

The construction of the greatest building in the world has been done in record time- the "building," from the workmen at the humblest task to the architects and the officers and directors of the officers and directors of the company seem not have spared any effort to make this great structure the ultimate expression of science and invention as applies to business buildings.

How big is it?-and that can engineering and structural feat, Empire State has startled the world. Every item that entered into the construction was unusual either in size or quantity, so that any group selected would suggest, the "bigness" of this structure. We select a few of the outstanding items:

"Empire State," built on the site of the famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, with some additional land, occupies an area of 83,860 square feet.

Including the 200-foot mooring mast at the top, the 86-story building rises to a height of 1248 feet above the street level. For comparison think of the Eiffel Tower-995 feet, the Chrysler Building-1046 feet, the Bank of Manhattan Building-927 feet, and the Woolworth Building-767 feet. The cubical content is figured at 37,000,000 cubic feet, and if we visualize AKRON the world's greatest airship, with it's capacity of 6,500,000 cubic feet of helium gas- three times that of the Los Angeles- anchored to the mooring mast, atop this building, we have a better appreciation of what this 37 million means.

Electric service is supplied throughout the building, by tree transformer stations located in (1) the basement, and on the, (2) forty-first and, (3) eighty-fifth floors. The transformers are supplied by 13,800 volts primary feeders brought up through the building. The telephone and telegraph service requires more than 17,000,000 feet of wire and cable.

The main observation gallery, 1048 feet above the street, accommodates 200 visitors and the tower observation gallery, 1210 feet above Fifth Avenue, is large enough to accommodate 50 persons at a time.

And so the immensity of this under-taking is expressed in every item or feature that you may mention.

A Wonderful Building- But how Impossible Without Elevators

"Planning the elevator service," says an Otis elevator engineer, "for a building of these proportions was a special problem, necessitating the thorough study of the requirements by competent engineers. Adequate elevator service must be provided to all floors, since the rental value of a floor depends largely upon the character of the elevator services which is provided."

"With a building of this height, the problem of securing the necessary elevator service with the least possible encroachment on the net rental area is especially important. Its solution in this case was the selection of high-speed elevators having the most efficient and elevators having the most efficient and time-saving method of operation obtainable. This required the specifying of the fewest number of elevators for the maximum service required."

Elevator schedules provide for transporting 15,000 people from the offices to the ground floor of the building between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. daily-think 500 people per minute.

The fifty-eight main passenger elevators are grouped in seven banks, centrally located in the building. With the exception of four, all of the elevators have express zones. The stops of the various groups overlap to provide "exchange" floors for inter-floor traffic and flexibility in the arrangement of the local and express zones. Each of these fifty-eight elevators is of the Otis Signal Control type, embodying Unit Multi-Voltage Control and MicroLeveling. The Operation is briefly summarized in the following paragraphs.

The various control switches and buttons for the operation of each car are conveniently grouped in the operating panel in the car. As passengers enter the car, the attendant in the car register their desired floor stops by pressing corresponding buttons located in the upper section of the car operating panel.

The buttons may be pressed in any sequence, either before or after the car is started, and they remain depressed until the completion of the trip.

The doors are closed and the car is started by moving the starting handle to its operating position.

After starting, the car proceeds to the first floor for which a car or hall button has been pressed. As it approaches the floor, it is automatically slowed down and stopped with the platform level with the door sill. The car and hatch doors open automatically during the leveling of the car.

A prospective passenger at one of the upper floors is advised of the approach and direction of travel of a car stopping at the floor by the illumination of a hall lantern over the elevator entrance. Since the lantern is illuminated only for a car actually stopping at the floor, false signals are avoided. The lantern remains lighted until the car leaves the floor. The control is so designed that the first available car approaching the floor in the desired direction will stop in answer to the pressing of a hall button-and will automatically cancel the call so as to prevent unnecessary stops by any other car.

In order that elevator traffic in the Empire State building may be handled efficiently and with the greatest convenience to the passengers, a very complete Otis signal system has been installed.

Number 1, of the six freight elevators with a rise of 986 feet, has the greatest travel of any of the elevators-it serves a total of eight-one openings.

The modern type of passenger elevator such as we find in this building is called "a traction machine" and differs from the drum-type of machine in that it depends upon the friction developed between the ropes and the driving sheaves to obtain the traction relation necessary to handle the required load.

The change in type of machine from drum to traction, as now used for passenger elevators I practically all modern buildings, called for a development in wire rope known as Roebling Special Steel Traction Rope. While this rope is not radically different in construction and general appearance from the former elevator ropes, certain refinements of fabrication have been incorporated in it to meet the exact requirements of the traction type of machine.

This rope is the result of painstaking development in every detail of manufacture, commencing with the making of the steel, through the wire drawing processes and finally in the fabrication of the rope. The principal developments have been in both the chemical and physical characteristics of the special steel wire.

Extensive and systematic tests, in both laboratory and field, have also been important factors in producing a rope of unusual toughness and fatigue resisting qualities.

Then, when the step from the requirements of the average skyscraper to that of the super-skyscraper came, there was a rope of known quality to meet the increased and exacting demands.

Elevator ropes have never been required to carry passengers to such heights, so that it was not enough to say that if a certain type of rope being used for 75-story buildings was giving satisfactory service, that it would meet this still more exacting service. Therefore, special tests with wire rope, of known characteristics, were made in the Roebling plant at Trenton to insure safety of travel in this greatest of all structures-tests that made greater demands that even the unusual conditions to be found in this 86-story building. Fatigue tests, here as in all tests of elevator ropes, played an important role in determining the final selection, and it is interesting to note that one of the fatique testing machines, the cubical content of which would tax the dimensions of an average size one-family house, was an important factor.

Roebling elevator ropes of five different constructions, as illustrated, were selected to meet the requirements of this installation-nearly 700,000 feet of these several constructions are used for hoisting ropes, compensating ropes, and governor ropes.

Roebling Wire Rope is made to provide this kind of service, that is why it must meet such exacting standards-why, in its making, modern production methods are supplemented by old-fashioned thoroughness.

In the ropes represented by Figs. 1 to 3, all outside wires are of the same diameter, whereas in Fig 4. the outside wires are of two diameters spaces alternately, and all of these ropes, including Fig. 5. are fabricated with hemp centers, each strand of Fig. 5 having a hemp center.

Some of the men who did the job- Owners: Empire State Inc.; Architects: Shreve, Lamb & Harmon; Contractors: Starrett Brothers & Eken; Engineers: Meyer, Strong & Jones, Inc.; Steel Erectors: Post & McCorrd, Inc.