Empire State Building Quiz

Question: What annual competition at the Empire State Building began in 1978?

Answer: Held annually since 1978, the Empire State Building Run-Up is a race in which the world’s top runners compete to climb the tower’s 86 flights of stairs in the shortest amount of time. The distance amounts to about 1,050 feet (320 meters) climbed.

Question: Which borough of New York City is the Empire State Building located in?

Answer: The Empire State Building is located on Fifth Avenue at 34th Street in New York City’s Manhattan borough.

Question: In which joint Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie do their characters meet atop the Empire State Building?

Answer: Though Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan have starred in all of these films together, Sleepless in Seattle (1993) is the only one which pays overt homage to An Affair to Remember (1957) and has their characters unite at the top of the Empire State Building. Sleepless in Seattle (1993) was the first of two Nora Ephron–directed romantic comedies that Hanks and Ryan would star in.

Question: When it opened in 1931 and won the title of world’s tallest building, how many stories did the Empire State Building exceed?

Answer: Upon its completion and opening in 1931, the Empire State Building was the world’s tallest structure at 102 stories and a total height of 1,250 feet (381 meters), which included its spire.

Question: Which architectural style is the Empire State Building an example of?

Answer: The Empire State Building was designed and built in the Art Deco style of architecture, which was a prevailing international form from the 1920s into the 1930s; it is characterized by geometric ornamentation. The Chrysler Building is another notable example of Art Deco architecture in New York City.

Question: What building in New York City surpassed the Empire State Building in 1972 to become the world’s tallest structure?

Answer: The Empire State Building was the world’s tallest building from its completion in 1931 until 1972, when it was surpassed by the One World Trade Center building; though the World Trade Center was known for its two “twin” towers until the deadly 2001 attacks, the roof of One World Trade Center reached 1,368 feet (417 meters) while Two World Trade Center’s roof reached a slightly lower 1,362 feet (415 meters).

Question: What was the Empire State Building’s first appearance on the silver screen?

Answer: The Empire State Building’s first appearance on the silver screen was in the technologically groundbreaking 1933 film King Kong, a mere two years after the tower’s opening. In its most iconic scene, the film’s titular ape scales the Empire State Building while holding the heroine hostage.

Question: Which New York state politician was the face of the Empire State Building’s construction?

Answer: Former Democratic governor of New York Al Smith was between jobs—having given up his governorship to run in the 1928 U.S. presidential election, which he ultimately lost—when he hatched the plan to build the record-breaking Empire State Building along with his friend John J. Raskob. Raskob helped finance the project, and Smith was named the first president of the Empire State Building Corporation.