Snapshot: The view from the Top

Bright lights, bustling traffic and faint sirens of police cars. These are the sights and sounds that greet you at the 86th floor observatory of the Empire State Building. At midnight.

Once the tallest building in the world, the structure now still towers over the city that never sleeps, watching over it like an assuring beacon.

The Observatory offers a 360-degree view of the city, unobstructed. I’ve heard that the best time to visit the Observatory is at night, when the city glistens in the dark. The buildings do sparkle with lights, and depending on where you stand, you can pinpoint exactly where Times Square is- the area illuminates the most.

The deck is a contrasting sight of buzz and serenity. It’s surprisingly quiet at the top even though at midnight, the deck is still crowded with people. You could only hear low murmurings and the occasional clicks of the camera. The streets below look as busy as day, but you could hardly hear the action, only distant sounds of sirens every now and then. And when you look up, you can make out the shape of the spire, and play back the scene when King Kong climbs all the way to the tip of the spire.

Night visits are also encouraged because of the shorter queue line. The deck opens until 2am, and it shouldn’t take you more than half hour up there (the last elevator up is at 1:15am). I tried queuing in the day, but have been told it may take up to two hours before I get to the top. At midnight, it took me half an hour from queuing, to the thorough bag checks, to taking two different elevators to arrive at the top of New York City.

IF you want to know more about New York City, get the list of Ten Things you absolutely have to do when visiting the Big Apple.

Ticket pricing:
86th floor observatory deck at USD25. To skip waiting, you can top up the fee to USD50, and you’ll be taking the express elevator without standing in line. There’s another deck at 102nd floor, and at USD42, you get to view the city from both 86th and 102 floors.

Did you know:
The Empire State Building makes more money from ticket sales to its observatory deck than from renting out office spaces.

Where: Empire State Building, New York City