From the top of the Empire State Building, on a clear day you can see forever - well, 80 miles away, anyway. A [P 009&P004 / sign] posted at the ticket booth indicates the visibility for the day. Ideally visitors can see five states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Walking around the observatories gives a 360-degree unobstructed view of the cityscape, bridges and environs.
Many people make a point of visiting the building at night. With its twinkling lights, the city looks like a spill of jewels on black velvet.
Some viewers diligently check their maps and pick out architectural highlights. Others position themselves in a single spot and stare. Still others stick their heads through the wire fencing that edges the platform to see what might be straight below. (Answer: not much - a series of building [G 13 / setbacks]; the edges of the lights that illuminate the building at night; wads of gum.)
The New York city skyline changes constantly, and therefore so does the view from the Empire State Building. Today viewers looking to the [P 018 / north] will see: the NYC Public Library, Rockefeller Center (which began construction at about the same time as the Empire State Building), St Patrick's Cathedral, George Washington Bridge (formerly the Hudson River Bridge, completed the same year as the Empire State Building), Times Square and Yankee Stadium. Central Park, the landscaped emerald of New York, can be seen nestling in the middle of multi-storied apartment buildings.
[P 014 / View to the east]: East River, Chrysler Building, UN Building, the Whitestone, Triborough and Throgs Neck bridges, and Long Island Sound.
View to the south: Wall Street; [P 020 / V 007 / World Trade Center]; Flatiron Building; the Toy Center; the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Verrazano bridges; the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
View to the west: [P 001 / V 006 / Hudson River], New Jersey, Macy's, Madison Square Garden, Jacob K Javits Convention Center, One Penn Plaza office building and the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum.
