Empire State Building
- You may be looking for the lunar tower named after this one.
One of the most famous American landmarks and tourist attractions, the Empire State Building was located in New York City.
It was situated on both 33rd Street (COMIC: Spiral Staircase) and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac)
At a height of 1473 feet, the Empire State Building was the tallest building and structure on Earth as late as 1966. (TV: The Chase) It was 443.2 metres up to the top of the antenna, or 337 metres up to the 102nd floor. It occupied an area of 7240 square metres and had 103 floors. Construction took 410 days, or 7 million man hours. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac)
History
20th century
While visiting New York City in 1903, the Thirteenth Doctor revealed to Graham O'Brien and Team TARDIS, of 2020 Sheffield, that the Empire State Building had not yet been constructed. (TV: Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror)
In 1929, a new corporation - Empire State, Inc. - was formed by a consortium of leading New York businessmen. Their aim was to construct the tallest building in the world, the first to have more than 100 floors, situated in the heart of New York City and named the Empire State, a popular nickname for the state of New York. The architect was Gregory Johnson of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, and he designed an art -deco skyscraper in less than a fortnight.
Excavation of the site began on 22 January 1930, and construction work was started on St Patrick's Day - 17 March. A 3000-strong workforce erected the building's 103 storeys at a rate of 4.5 storeys per week between June and November. The construction work cost $40,948,900 and claimed the lives of six workers. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac)
In 1930, just prior to the building's completion, the Cult of Skaro occupied one floor of the building. They consulted with construction manager Mr Diagoras, who obeyed their orders willingly, and informed him of their plans. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan) They took Dalekanium plates taken from the outer casing of Dalek Thay and attached them to the top of the Empire State Building. These would attract gamma radiation and activate the Dalek DNA in the humans who had been abducted, bringing to life an army of human-Daleks. The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones stopped the Cult's plans. (TV: Evolution of the Daleks)
In 1966, the dimwitted American tourist Morton Dill observed the First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Vicki Pallister landing in the Doctor's TARDIS on the observation deck at the top of the Empire State Building, as they attempted to escape the Dalek time machine. The Daleks also landed there for a moment before continuing their chase of the Doctor. (TV: The Chase)
21st century
The spire of the Empire State Building, despite being in the path of the atmospheric-cleaning fire in 2009 created by the Doctor to avert the Sontaran invasion of Earth, was not harmed. (TV: The Poison Sky)
The building was the first in Manhattan to lose its power during the attempted Vykoid takeover of the city in 2010. (PROSE: The Forgotten Army)
During the early 21st century, a quantum harvester merged with Dorothy Bell. Together, they extended the height of the building by 20 storeys. After more recent buildings like the Freedom Tower were built, she felt the Empire State Building was not tall enough. So she added twenty extra floors.
After Dorothy started making more modifications to New York City, Trinity Wells reported on the occurances, saying it was a state of emergency. (COMIC: The Fountains of Forever)
Later history
In 2254, the Empire State Building survived a Dalek invasion of Earth which saw New York liberated by the Doctor. (GAME: Dalek Attack)
The Empire State Building was among the Earth cultural items the Threshold stole and took to the town of Wormwood on the Moon. (COMIC: Wormwood)
References
Vicki mentioned that the view from the top of the Empire State Building made her want to go to New York again. (TV: "The Watcher")
Behind the scenes
The Empire State Building was anachronistically featured on the initial cover for The First Doctor Adventures: Volume One. As it had not been built yet during the time period depicted in the story The Great White Hurricane, it was consequently replaced with another famous New York City landmark, the Statue of Liberty.
Explaining how Henry van Statten was unfamiliar with the Dalek he named Metaltron, The Time Traveller's Almanac suggested that the Van Statten Incident took place in a timeline where the Cult of Skaro did not emerge from the Sphere with the Empire State Building being constructed without their interference since the personal timelines of both the Doctor and the Dalek race had not progressed to the point where those events occurred.
