Even before the Empire State Building officially opened on May 1, 1931, it represented something greater than just the world’s tallest office building. From the moment of its conception in August 1929, through its construction during the onset of the Great Depression, the Empire State embodied an American ideal , the very American dream of rising . But whose American dream does it truly embody? Who actually built the Empire State Building? Astonishingly, no list of workmen was ever compiled,