Complete History of the Empire State building. As the victor of the 1930s’ race to the sky, the Empire State Building has long been hailed as one of America’s biggest landmarks and tourist destinations, second only to the Statue of Liberty. With its incredible feats of construction, it is nothing short of a marvel of architecture that holds fast as a beacon of light and hope to all of America even today. But this magnificent building wasn’t always so successful— opening in 1931 to an incredibly bleak financial prospects and a mostly empty building, it quickly began to be referred to as the “Empty State Building” on account of the shockingly low amount of tenants that rented space in it. Despite its great promise, what could have caused such a disastrous start? And how did the building recover from it? Who was the Empire State Building built for? Did the Empire State Building get destroyed? Was the Empire State Building built during the Great Depression? Was the Empire state building a blimp port?