The Empire State Building rises out of a real estate rivalry: developers race the Chrysler Building for the title of world's tallest structure, then keep building through the start of the Great Depression, when Manhattan real estate should have collapsed instead of climbing higher. This segment, drawn from the larger series New York: A Documentary Film, traces the tower from its conception in the boom years of the 1920s through construction, using archival footage of the ironworkers and engineers who assembled it far above the street. It covers the building's public life afterward too: its decades holding the record for tallest building in the world, the 1945 B-25 bomber that crashed into its 79th floor, and its role as King Kong's perch in the 1933 film that made it a movie landmark. The film closes on September 11, 2001, when the Empire State Building became New York's tallest building again after the World Trade Center's towers fell, turning a real estate story into one about what a city holds onto.