# Empire State Building - With or Without ????



## Jue (Mar 28, 2003)

ESB once had a flat roof, with no spire at all. It looks best now.


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## samsonyuen (Sep 23, 2003)

The top part looks pointless without the spire!


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## DamienK (Sep 11, 2002)

That's correct, the original plans for the tower had a flat top. They only decided on the "nose cone" when someone suggested the top of the tower used as a mooring mast for blimps. In fact, the designers were so clueless as to the operation of these zepplins that they made renderings showing the passengers disembarking from the pointy end of the zepplin, not from the passenger compartment on the underside! 

Eventually the idea was abandoned due to the dangerous wind gusts which could send the blimp crashing into the tower, but they kept the nose cone. Then of course, the antenna was added in 1950.


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## Taller Better (Aug 27, 2005)

Jue said:


> ESB once had a flat roof, with no spire at all. It looks best now.


Did it actually have a flat roof, or was that just the original plan? I don't 
recall seeing any photos of it being a finished building with a flat roof.


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## forvine (Feb 23, 2005)

With... it just look not right without, like the building ends abruptly.


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## forvine (Feb 23, 2005)

Taller said:


> Did it actually have a flat roof, or was that just the original plan? I don't
> recall seeing any photos of it being a finished building with a flat roof.


When King Kong is fight those planes on top of it


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## TowersNYC (May 17, 2003)

Taller said:


> Did it actually have a flat roof, or was that just the original plan? I don't
> recall seeing any photos of it being a finished building with a flat roof.


*The ESB only had a "flat" top on the blueprints ONLY. Then it was decided to add "hat".

It was constructed with the mooring mast from day one !!!!*


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## TowersNYC (May 17, 2003)

Jue said:


> ESB once had a flat roof, with no spire at all. It looks best now.



*YOU ARE TOTALLY WRONG !!!*


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## james2390 (Mar 31, 2003)

With


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## Taller Better (Aug 27, 2005)

I thought it had never been flat as there were a lot of pix taken of its construction.


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## Skyman (Jan 4, 2006)

In such difficult situation I'll say with


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## Jack_White455 (Nov 27, 2005)

I got to say with. It looks incomplete without to me.


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## Medo (Apr 7, 2004)

Without the spire it looks like a castrated horse hno:


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## Marcanadian (May 7, 2005)

Taller said:


> I thought it had never been flat as there were a lot of pix taken of its construction.


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## Bertez (Jul 9, 2005)

I'm going with the crowd.....With


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## TalB (Jun 8, 2005)

I like it better with the antenna than without it, but that doesn't mean that I will count it as part of its height.


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## CrazyCanuck (Oct 9, 2004)

It should be included but should not in the height count.


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## PotatoGuy (May 10, 2005)

Definetly with


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## Liz L (Oct 17, 2002)

Definitely WITH, though all those extra antennas stuck every which where are starting to clutter up the classic profile a bit...

The spire, BTW, was added at the spur (or "spire") of the moment to win the height war with the Chrysler building...Legend has it that Al Smith said "this building needs a hat! " to the long-suffering architects, and Lo and behold...:lol: 

And yeah, that billboard is kinda creepy...Who's Carlos, and what gives, anyhow???


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