The Empire State Building opened on this day in 1931, only 15 months after construction began.

At the ESB official Web page, you can sign up to access its live cameras. It's kind of hazy there today, but I still enjoyed the view of the Statue of Liberty and the Flatiron Building. And without any height-related queasiness!

I wish the home being built across the street from us was on as fast a construction pace as the ESB, for its vast size, was.

When the builders started on the residence last summer, the hubby and I told ourselves that at least the bulk of the associated noise and dust would be produced during the hot summer and cold winter months when we keep our doors and windows closed.

Construction concert: But spring arrived and the crews are still working on the house.

So we've been serenaded by nail guns and backhoes (that back-up beeping sound is so soothing ... not!) and debris being thrown from the roof (which is finally on, but still unshingled).

Even better, this construction concert often begins before daybreak! Yes, in the gray predawn, the work and noise and dirt flying (and drifting through our screens and into our rooms) begins.

We're also very curious about our coming neighbors. Mainly, we're wondering how many there will be because, in keeping with our big building theme today, this house is HUGE!

It totally fills up the lot, side to side and front to back. It has garage space for four cars. Our double garage abode is feeling quite insignificant right now.

We had hoped the house would be a bit smaller, along the lines of two others down the block that went up a year or so ago. Mainly, we didn't want it blocking our view of the hills across the way as we sat on our upstairs patio.

But they put a second story on it.

At least the roof line is still below the hill tops. And the way our house is situated and the Earth rotates, most of the year we usually look out the other direction from our upstairs deck to catch sunsets, like the ones you can check out in my photo album.

Kibbles and bits: We've also been intrigued by the building process. Part of the reason our initial hopes were high for a lower elevation home was that workers spent weeks digging out the property.

But we woke up one morning to see dozens of bags stacked in the foundation hole, pushing the base level up several feet. The hubby ventured over for a closer look and reported that the bags were labeled "dog food." That's right, not a brand name; just dog food.

What the ... ? Our home in Florida was concrete block, but this was a first: Kibbles and bits construction.

Later that day, we saw workers putting some of the dirt they had previously dug out into the generic canine chow bags and stacking them alongside the others.

Then the concrete was poured over them (that huge concrete crane in this photo is amazing!) to set foundation. I guess the bags keep the soil from shifting as much.

Anyway, it's been interesting. The hubby and I, though, are ready for it to be over.

And it made us glad that we didn't actually see our house being built. Who knows what kind of construction practices would have freaked us out!

Scoping 'scrapers: America's first skyscraper, a whopping nine floors atop a basement when it opened in 1885, was the Home Insurance Building in Chicago.

And things just literally went up after that.

Check out the world's 10 tallest (right now) buildings, or the 100 top towering structures. 
I just love the name of the group that certifies these contracting feats: The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

But back to the relatively tiny but still sentimentally tops Empire State Building. I've got to put in plug for my favorite movie associated with the building,
"An Affair to Remember," the 1954 version with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.

One of the best flicks, not just chick flicks, ever made.

Note the skyline in the background of the DVD box and you can almost hear Kerr's character saying, "The Empire State Building is the closest thing to heaven in this city."