The Empire State Building Opened During the Great Depression. Its Survival Story Holds a Lesson for Today Time 4/30/2021 Olivia B. Waxman © Irving Browning—The New York Historical Society/Getty Images Tourists at Bryant Park looking through a telescope toward American Radiator Building and the Empire State Building, New York City, circa 1930s. On May 1, 1931, an “awestruck” Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Governor of New York, spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for what was then the world’s tallest building, the Empire State Building. The new skyscraper, he said, wa...