Some famous architecture is celebrating an anniversary this week. The lights went on for the first time at the Empire State Building on May 1, 1931 when President Hoover pressed a button to electrify the building as part of its dedication ceremony.
The 102-story building, which had begun construction on January 1930, was the first skyscraper to rise to over 1,250 feet and retained its title as the world's tallest skyscraper until 1954. The building's construction was financed in part by John Raskob, a financial executive for the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and General Motors. Raskob was motivated in part by a rivalry; at the time construction began, the tallest building in the world was the Chrysler Building, built by Walter Chrysler, the head of the Chrysler Corporation.
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