Empire Estate building, NYC
You queue in queues for queues, then in more queues while "Tony the Taxi driver" taunts you about how "you're in my city now", and wanky entirely fake staff big up how amazing it is at the top over a loud speaker, trying to sell you the headset for a bargain $10 or whatever...all this while just queueing, wondering how many more fucking corners there'll be, and how much harder they're gonna milk Tony the Taxi driver for.

When you finally get up there, literally and with any exaggeration, 3 hours later of just standing in various corridors, it dawns on you how badly you've just been scammed as IT'S JUST A FUCKING BUILDING!

They even put hardcore fencing up so you can't kill yourself (like you'd really wait in-line 3 hours for that), thus spoiling the view anyway.

So, we took the mandatory pictures, cursed the place a few times, and fucked off utterly utterly disappointed. Tony can fuck off and die if you ask me.

Length was hours.
( slippery doctore, Thu 26 Jun 2008, 17:36, 8 replies)

Good to hear
My friend and I met up in NYC. We could have gone to the Empire State Building but chilled in Central Park and people watched instead. Sounds like a good move.
(Richy_T hundreds if not thousands of dollars, Thu 26 Jun 2008, 18:17, closed)

Yeah
And you can't even see the WTC nowadays.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Thu 26 Jun 2008, 18:18, closed)

We did go
to the WTC site. A lot less poignant than I expected. Pretty much just a building site.
(Richy_T hundreds if not thousands of dollars, Thu 26 Jun 2008, 18:25, closed)

I
second this with a vengence... tony the taxi driver can fuck right off
(Zapiola zip-zap-zop, Thu 26 Jun 2008, 22:34, closed)

Much like the Eiffel Tower
Extremely packed, terribly long queue, and when I got to the top... there was nothing to see (it was really smoggy that day).

It's more fun to stand below a building like the Empire State or the Eiffel Tower and look up and make yourself dizzy. Then move on.
(AlfishKK, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 1:12, closed)

Hmm
WTC site - One side has a series of massive tributes and quotes and fact-boards. I had prepared for a very, very pro-american, saccharine-sweet series of tributes and instead found many of them genuinely humble and touching, so I felt like a dick for my assumptions and it made a big impression on me.
from the other 4 sides it's just a big building site.

Empire state: Go a few blocks uptown and go up the Rockerfeller Centre. Same height, no queue (literally, I walked straight to the front of the line at a time of day when the ES line is about 2.5 hours).

You can even stand on the top and use binoculars to look at the annoyed, tired people on the top of the Empire State :D

Plus, instead of fences they have huge walls of plexiglass that are kept scrupulously clean, so if you are nervous of heights (like I am) it's a terrifying joy.
( Mockingbird Practitioner of SCIENCE, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 9:53, closed)

Yeah, sorry folks
The Empire State Building is around the corner from my office. It really is just a building. With a Starbucks. And a Chipotle.

I secretly love watching tourists look up at it, going "buh? gah? what am I looking at?" like they're expecting to find something non-buildingy about it.
(tinyninja, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 5:29, closed)

um...
You know what helps?

Don't. Go. When. It's. Busy.

I went in May on a, I think, Tuesday morning, I was at the top within twenty minutes of walking through the door. There were about 10 - 15 of us at the top. It was sunny, the views were stunning. I stayed for nearly an hour and was out in time for Brunch.


I agree about Tony though. Twat.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Wed 2 Jul 2008, 15:54, closed)