Tall building. Check. 102nd floor observatory. Check. Fast elevator. Check. The promise of amazing views. Erm… sorry but it’s a bit cloudy up there today. You what? Clouds? I didn’t come all the way to New York to be turned away from the building that is the pinnacle of American architecture! Come back to the Empire State Building at night they said, when it will be clearer. So back at nightfall we came. And they weren’t wrong.

The ferocious winds had whipped the clouds into the abyss of the deep night sky and the shock at what lay before us was like a smack in the face. Quite literally, as the icy cold winds at those heights batter their way through your cheeks. But it’s the astonishing views at night that sends the real shiver down your spine: the glow of New York City stretches out for infinity below as buildings and cars flicker and glint like plankton dancing on the ocean’s surface.

The observatory platform provides 360 degrees of mind-blowingly phenomenal views and only this high up is there such an acute juxtaposition between the calm and quiet of the night sky and the buzz of the city below.