Video: 'New York A Documentary E 5 Cosmopolis' (Empire State Building opens May 1, 1931,at 1:37:27)

(Friday, May 1, 1931, 11:30 a.m. EDT) — The Empire State Building, the tallest building in the world for 40 years, opened today at 350 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, as President Herbert Hoover pressed a button in the White House that turned on the lights of all 102 stories.

The Empire State Building stood as the world’s tallest building until the construction of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan in 1970.

Video: 'The Empire State Building, an Engineering Miracle!!!'

Despite favorable publicity related to the building’s construction, because of the Great Depression and World War II, its owners did not make a profit until the early 1950s.