The display inside shows how much safety was disregarded in the race to build ever taller skyscrapers in those days. I would hope Francesco is well harnessed as he goes about his day job, but the period photos just show workers walking along girders without any safety equipment whatsoever. It makes me cringe a bit to look at them!

The Woolworth Building would obviously have been around in the late 20s, but the race for tallest building heated up after that, Great Depression or not. The Manhattan Company Building was only tallest for just over a month before the Chrysler went up and the Chrysler itself less than a year before the Empire State. Obviously the Empire State had a longer run though! I always smile at the antenna "spike" being included - seems to be a shortcut to getting a taller building :) Always seems to be a couple of hundred feet added on just to make the building that bit taller. It's getting ridiculous - if Wiki's figures are right, a whole 25% of the current tallest, the Burj Khalifa, is not even habitable.

I actually find New York more impressive, to know that they were making buildings of that sort of scale 80 years ago now. Although even there there are some exceptions - I always find the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth if you prefer) a bit guilty of height for height's sake around Midtown, without the distinctiveness of a lot of NYC skyscrapers.

Incidentally, I have always liked the German word for "skyscraper" - der Wolkenkratzer, one way of translating which is "cloud scratcher", which fits nicely with Francesco's photo I reckon.