A New Yorker’s Guide to the Empire State Building: Is It Worth Visiting?

Even if you’ve never visited the Big Apple, you almost certainly know these 3 iconic Gotham landmarks: the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, and the Empire State Building (ESB).

Though the Empire State Building is arguably the most recognizable structure of the New York skyline and possibly the most famous skyscraper in both movie and real-life history, it’s not always clear to visitors to the city what a tour of the building entails and whether it’s worth the hassle and cost.

Follow me, a New Yorker who’s been in and around the ESB for decades, on a visit to give you the inside scoop on the building that helped define New York City.

History

Built in 1931 on the original Waldorf Astoria hotel site, the 102-story art deco building was the tallest in the world at completion. It held that record for 41 years, finally surpassed by the ill-fated World Trade Center. As of 2025, it’s the 59th-tallest building in the world, the 10th-tallest in the U.S., and the eighth-tallest in New York City. It’s still the tallest pre-World War II building in the world.

The Empire State Building was already world-famous by the time it became the location of the climax of “King Kong” (the original 1933 and 2005 Peter Jackson versions), with the giant ape making the structure his final climb before falling to his death. The original groundbreaking film classic cemented its cultural status and has appeared in countless movies and television shows since.

The building has been the site of real-life action and drama, too. In 1945, a B-25 bomber flying in thick fog almost hit the Chrysler Building and then crashed into the 78th, 79th, and 80th floors on the north side of the Empire State Building, killing 11 people inside the building and all 3 of the crew. The crash damaged the cables of an elevator, plunging it 75 floors into the basement. The occupant, an elevator operator, survived, albeit with severe injuries, making her the record holder of the tallest elevator fall anyone has survived. The New York Fire Department managed to extinguish the fire caused by the crash in under 40 minutes.

Though there are now precautions in place to prevent jumpers, the Empire State Building also garnered a dark reputation as a favored site for suicides and suicide attempts, mostly from the open deck of the 86th-floor observatory. A suicide photograph was the subject of an Andy Warhol print, while in 1979, a woman jumped from the 86th floor but was blown by the wind onto a window ledge on the 85th floor, breaking her hip.

A true product of its time, the spire of the Empire State Building was originally designed to be a docking station for airships. The idea, in this era before mainstream commercial airplane travel, was that mooring dirigibles would tie up at the 106th floor, and the 86th floor would house the lobby and ticketing offices for the passengers, who would board and disembark from the airships via a gangplank over 1,000 feet above street level.

The only time an airship docked at the Empire State Building was in September 1931, when the crew could only manage to stay docked for a few minutes in 40-mph winds. Finally realizing how ridiculous and dangerous their plans were, the developers quietly dropped the dirigible docking plans, and the airship docking structures remained but went unused.

The building first used lights to create a display on its upper floors in 1976 in honor of the U.S. bicentennial (in red, white, and blue, of course). That started the tradition of lighting the building to honor holidays and important events. You can submit a request to display colors of your choosing on a specific date to celebrate an event.

Almost every year since 1978, the site has hosted the Empire State Building Annual Run-Up, where thousands of runners climb up 1,576 steps from the ground floor to the 86th floor. The fastest runners do it in about 10 minutes.

Today, this National Historic Landmark, which was voted Tripadvisor’s No. 1 world attraction in 2024, receives about 2.5 million visitors a year.

Booking

Booking tickets to the Empire State Building was easy through its website. Essentially, the big choice was whether I wanted to go to the 86th floor only or to both the 86th and 102nd floors. I booked the most popular tour to visit both decks. Time slots ranged from 8:30 a.m. to 10:45 p.m. for my visit, but they can extend to 1 a.m. during certain summer weeks.

Other packages:

• Offered the use of the express elevators to get to the observatory decks more quickly
• Bundled the observation decks with discounts on other New York City attractions via the CityPass service
• Offered guided tours with various degrees of fanciness and possibly a dedicated lounge like you get at, say, Rockefeller Center (from $175 to $500)
• Sunset or sunrise views (the latter with a special Starbucks coffee blend that could hardly be worth the extra $90 it’d cost)
• Proposal package with a guided tour and a special proposal spot on the 86th floor for $1,000 and no freebies for family, friends, or photographers

Buying online, I had to reserve a time to visit, with the times posted at 15-minute intervals. I selected a midmorning slot and moved on to payment.

Since I wasn’t in a rush, only wanted to see both observatory decks, and didn’t need to propose to anyone, I paid for the bare minimum that would get me to both floors I wanted to see, which came to $87 plus taxes and a $5 booking fee, or $100.16 total.

When I visited, there was a 25% discount for New York City locals, but I didn’t take advantage of this because it didn’t include the 102nd floor and was limited to the last 3 daily time slots from Monday through Thursday.

Advance tickets were not required. You could buy them upon arrival from one of many kiosks on the second floor. When I went, there were plenty of kiosks to go around without waiting to use one. However, it’s worth noting that this was in April 2025, when international tourism to the U.S. was already seeing a big dip due to various moves by the new administration in Washington, D.C.

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Location

The Empire State Building takes up the entire eastern half of the block between 33rd and 34th streets and Fifth Avenue and Broadway.

It’s in Midtown Manhattan, so you’re well covered for public transportation. The closest subway stop is the 34th Street-Herald Square station, where the N, Q, R, W, B, D, F, and M trains stop. Penn Station, also on 34th Street, is the biggest stop for the 1, 2, 3, A, C, and E lines. Both are about a 5-minute walk from the Empire State Building.

From the east, you can take the 4, 5, 6, or 7 train to Grand Central Station, which is about 10 minutes by foot from the Empire State Building.

The tourist entrance is on the north side of the building and leads to a dedicated lobby for everyone going up to the observatory decks. You can’t miss it — look for the roped-off line of people in front of the wall that says “Observatory, Observatory, Observatory.” It leads to, you guessed it, the observatory.

Do not use the other entrances to the building! Though most people know it as a tourist site, the Empire State Building is mostly a working office building.

Security won’t let you in unless you work in the building or are a tenant’s guest. But don’t fret, because you’re not missing much. I’ve visited friends who worked inside, and it’s got that mostly windowless, badly temperature-controlled, slightly dingy, and somewhat claustrophobic atmosphere common to prewar American high-rises and skyscrapers.

Observation Lobby

I entered the tourist lobby after waiting in line. After that, I only had to walk past the guy at the welcome desk, go around the corner, and then walk up the stairs to the second floor.

There was no security, no wanding, and no metal detector. The website said not to bring in the usual contraband (guns, knives, flamethrowers, etc.), but no one checked anyone or their bags — there wasn’t even an inkling of a security station set up.

There was a slight slowdown to get up the stairs, but it took only a few minutes and didn’t require anyone to use the rope line.

The only reason for the delay was the people waiting for their turn to take pictures with the building mock-up on the landing on the way up to the second floor.

You could just walk around those people on either side and to the second floor, evade the staffer trying to get you to do souvenir photos, show tickets to a sole security guard at a turnstile, and join the line to the elevators up to the 80th floor.

Museum

The 80th-floor elevator line took a few minutes but wasn’t a torturous wait. The staff packed the smallish (by modern standards) elevators tight, but no one seemed to mind since everyone stared straight up at the ceiling video.

The video showed a simulation of construction workers rushing to build the tower floor by floor to keep with the elevator ascending, all while shouting stereotypical New Yorkerisms to each other along the lines of “Hey, I’m workin’ here! Fuhgeddaboutit!” (That’s not exactly what they said, but it was about that level of conversation and pigeonholing.)

Yes, everyone’s ears popped.

The doors opened onto a darkened, winding hallway full of exhibits about the Empire State Building, its construction, important moments in its history, and most of all, its appearances in media throughout its near century of existence. It got pretty crowded in as mostly European families stopped to ponder and read the descriptions for each display, but apparently, the crowds die down a lot after the morning.

Once I was suitably entranced by the history and making of the Empire State Building, a hallway exhibit dedicated to its corporate tenants snapped me back to the reality that it’s primarily a commercial landlord. It might as well have said, “Don’t forget to enjoy a Starbucks Frappuccino as you update your resume with the help of LinkedIn!”

After the museum, there was a large hallway with windows looking out at the city.

This was the only place where I could’ve seen it worth paying extra for the express lines and elevators. The crowds to get to the elevators to the 86th floor got packed. It created enough of a bottleneck that one of the staffers invited visitors to forgo waiting in the elevator line and instead take the stairs up.

I was the only person to take the stairs.

I found the door to the stairs just past the bathrooms in a somewhat hard-to-find corner at the end of a hallway.

The stairs could’ve been in any New York high-rise or office building. If I’d suddenly had my memory of the day wiped by a “Men in Black”-type device and suddenly come to with this view, I would’ve had no idea I was in a landmarked building. I’d probably guess I was in a generic office building of at least 5 stories somewhere in New York City. (I’m also assuming that the neuralyzer wouldn’t have also wiped my knowledge of what office buildings, New York fire codes, stairs, or the soul-crushing nature of modern desk work are.)

Almost to the 86th floor, there was a delightful surprise: a wall-sized reprint of a New Yorker cartoon joking about M.C. Escher.

Every floor until the 86th floor was inaccessible from the stairs. When I finally got up to the 86th floor, which wasn’t a bad hike, it wasn’t a grand welcome. There was nothing to mark that it was the observatory deck except the jacket someone had left hanging from a utility closet. I hope the annual stairs runners receive more hullabaloo when they arrive here.

I walked through the door and rejoined the crowds, having probably beaten most people still waiting in line for the elevators on the 80th floor.

86th Floor

The 86th floor consisted of an inner ring, which was inside, and an outer ring, which was the outside observation deck.

The deck wrapped around the entire floor, affording expansive views of the city and New Jersey in every direction.

I didn’t go on the clearest morning, but the Freedom Tower was visible to the south.

The Chrysler Building was easy to pick out from the eastern and northern sides of the deck.

To the west, I could follow boats cruising along the Hudson River.

Naturally, there were signs warning people not to climb over the fence, put their children in danger, or toss anything over the edge 86 stories up, because this is where we are as a civilization at this point in history.

The art deco theming was consistent throughout the floor, including a chrome sunburst compass with directions toward the big New York City attractions.

Elevators led back down to the second floor or up to the 102nd floor, depending on your ticket. I didn’t have to wait to get up to the 102nd floor.

102nd Floor

The 102nd floor, basically just below the base of the antenna, was small, round, and entirely enclosed. You couldn’t take the stairs down.

The floor was so small that walking around took less than a minute. Not many people seemed to have bought tickets for this floor, but it started to feel cramped even with maybe 10 people. I had to squeeze past people to make it all the way around.

It was a splendid view, but I’m not sure it was better than the outside view from the 86th floor. It was probably not worth paying an extra $35, nearly double the price of tickets that only granted admission to the 86th floor.

The elevator from the 102nd floor went straight down to the second floor, where it led to the restrooms and gift shop.

Gift Shop

Before the gift shop was a short hallway with restrooms. This was one of the few bottlenecks of the entire experience, with people forming a long line to use the toilets and others sitting on benches waiting for friends and family, checking their phones or maps, or just resting their feet. If you can, use the toilets on the 80th floor on the way up (near the stairwell entrance), which had zero people waiting, and avoid this human traffic jam.

Around the corner from the restrooms was the gift shop entrance.

It was a larger store than I expected, mostly filled with the kinds of tchotchkes you can find in almost any souvenir store around Times Square (or almost anywhere in Midtown Manhattan).

The usual ESB-branded T-shirts and sweatshirts, King Kong statuettes, and various movie-related Empire State paraphernalia were there.

The shop was not playing Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” on a loop.

The most unique product I could find in the shop was a grinning Empire State Building stuffed toy that looked like it should’ve been voiced by Keanu Reeves.

Exit

Wall-mounted monitors were on the way out of the gift shop and toward the exit of the building, which deposited visitors on the eastern, or Fifth Avenue, side of the building.

You could view souvenir photos from the beginning of the tour on these monitors and pay for your photo at the counter in the center of the room.

ESB or Top of the Rock?

Compared to the Top of the Rock observation deck at Rockefeller Center, the ESB has a higher open-air view (86 versus 70 stories), and you’re closer to attractions like Macy’s, Herald Square, and Koreatown.

Ironically, the view from the Empire State Building lacks a critical part of the New York City skyline that many visitors consider essential to skyscraper observation deck tours: a view of the Empire State Building.

There’s also a lack of amenities. For example, cafes by observation decks, a wider variety of shopping as soon as you leave the tour, and activities on the observatory floors, besides gawking at the view.

In terms of price, the base ESB ticket is around the same price as a basic Top of the Rock excursion ($44 and up for the Empire State Building versus $40 and up for general admission at Rockefeller Center). For both the ESB and Top of the Rock, you can find the cheapest tickets at off-peak times, meaning the morning and just before closing. At the ESB, that can save you a few bucks off a base ticket — though the earliest time slot, 8:30 a.m., is actually the most expensive to buy a ticket for and is only purchasable online. At Top of Rock, the prices tend to be highest in the evening and remain consistently high until right before closing (Top of the Rock is open from 8 a.m. to midnight.)

That said, there’s more to do at Top of the Rock, including 3 levels of observation decks rather than the ESB’s 2, rides like the Beam and the Skylift (the Empire State Building has nothing like these), and, again, the fact that you can actually get a wonderful view of the Empire State Building fairly close amid the New York City skyline. Plus, though you end the tour a little farther away from places like Macy’s, you find yourself right in the center of an even more densely packed center of tourist attractions, including NBC Studios, all the shops at Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Museum of Modern Art, and so on. If you’re one of those people still obsessed with the TV show “Friends” over 2 decades after its finale aired, then Top of the Rock is probably an obvious choice for you. (And please explain to me what the deal with that is, anyway.)

But you also have to keep in mind that, at Top of the Rock, the rides cost extra, so, with all the bells and whistles, you’re not walking away having spent less than $100 a person — assuming no one in your group was tempted by a “Frasier” mug. So if you’re just into popping up to the top of a New York City landmark, having a gander at an unparalleled skyline without making a day of it, and avoiding being surrounded by the kind of people who are still making “We were on a break!” jokes, then the Empire State Building is a likely a better choice for you.

If you are from out of town and making a day (or a week) of Manhattan and looking to pack in the Gotham landmarks without putting too much of a dent in your wallet, then consider a New York CityPASS, which can save you a bundle on admissions fees to some of the most popular attractions in the city, including both the ESB and Top of the Rock. So instead of having to choose one, why not both?

Bottom Line:

Top of the Rock may be more immediately fulfilling for visitors, especially for families who only want to make 1 ear-popping, elevator-dependent tour during their trip to New York City.

Final Thoughts

As a local, I avoided going up to the top of this landmark for the second time in my life for far too long, worried about getting stuck in a tedious tourist trap, being endlessly prodded to waste money on overpriced trinkets and add-ons, and so on. And though there’s no denying it’s touristy, I’m still glad I went.

The Empire State Building is a national and New York City icon for a reason, and once you’re up on the observatory deck looking at America’s biggest and arguably most storied city spread out all around you, it’s hard to say that it’s not worth making the trip up the elevator at least to the 86th floor at least once in your life.