What was the original purpose of the spire on the Empire State Building?

The Empire State Building is an art deco building in New York City. Started in 1930 and completed in 1931, it was tallest in the world until 1970 and it is literally iconic in that, for many years, it was widely seen as an unrivalled symbol of NYC itself. Its shape is planted in our memories like, say, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or Tower Bridge in London.

What about that spire? It is certainly true that a flag was raised on the building when it was completed ahead of schedule, but that was from the 86th floor, not the spire. Also, a radio antenna was attached to the spire six months after the building was finished. But that was not the original purpose. The building was outfitted with the spire, not as decoration, but to serve as a mooring station for airships.

The spire was indeed used that way – just once, on 15 September 1931. It was soon realised that attempting to dock a large airship at the top of the world’s tallest building was over-complicated. Although the spire was intended as a mooring mast and there was even a staircase leading from the 102nd floor to the 103rd floor so that airship passengers could descend into the building (then take an elevator to the 86th-floor arrival lounge), it became apparent after construction that the idea was infeasible. Not only was it dangerous to dock an airship without rear mooring lines to help stabilise it, but also the building itself created strong updrafts that made mooring and unloading an airship quite dangerous.