NYC Highlights, Post 3: Empire State Building

On Christmas Day, we decided to go up the Empire State Building, New York's tallest building from its completion in 1931 until 1972 (when the World Trade Centre was completed), and again since the 9/11 tragedy. Incredibly, the Empire State Building, which is 102 storeys high, took only 15 months to build!!

As one of the few tourist attractions open on Christmas Day, plus the fact that it was a nice clear (albeit cold) day, the ESB was in high demand. The first photo below shows about half of the FIRST queue we waited in - out of the EIGHT queues it took to get up to the 86th floor observatory and then back down again!!! There was a queue to get in the door, one to go through airport-style security, one to get tickets, one to get through the next door, one for the lift to the 80th floor, one at the 80th floor for the lift to the 86th floor (we ended up taking the stairs), and two more to get back to ground level. In total we spent about 3 hours waiting in queues, and only about half an hour at the lookout!



There's actually a higher observatory on the 102nd floor, but our New York passes only included going to the 86th floor, which was plenty high enough!! It was so high that it didn't feel quite real, and I wasn't as jittery as I would have thought - I just distracted myself by taking photos!

The photos below show the amazing view in all four directions. The first photo shows the crowded observatory walkway and the nice high fence. :) The fifth photo is zoomed in so you can see the skaters on the Rockefeller Centre ice skating rink! In the sixth photo you can see the Chrysler Building and the Brooklyn Bridge (I think) behind it. The ninth photo shows the rest of the Empire State Building above us. And if you look closely at the second last photo, that spike sticking up from the island on the left is actually the Statue of Liberty!













After we finally made it outside again, we thought we'd take a Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise on the Hudson River, another thing that was included in our New York Passes. However, after walking/ running 8 blocks to get there in time, we discovered we had run to the wrong location so would have to wait until another day! However, it was about 4pm by then so we saw a nice sunset over the river, with sightseeing helicopters taking off and landing nearby every few minutes.



That night we saw more Christmas store window displays, walked through Times Square, and had tea at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet diner. And that was our Christmas Day in New York!!