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A lot of people don't know that the Empire State Building was struck by a very sizable aircraft back in 1945.

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In fact, it was I'm going to run this in the background. On Saturdays July 28th, 1945, Lieutenant Colonel William Franklin Smith Jr.

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was piloting a B-25 Mitchell Bomber on a routine personal transportation mission from Boston to LaGuardia Airport.

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Well, what happens? He runs into the Empire State Building in tears and 18 foot by 20 foot hole

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in the building where the offices of the National Catholic Welfare Council were located and guess what didn't happen?

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The Empire State Building didn't fall neatly into its own footprint. And as a matter of fact,

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it was crazy damage. There were a lot of fires. There was loss of life. There was one lady who was in an elevator

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shaft. She still holds the world's record, the Guinness Book World's record for the longest,

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survived fall. And it was like, she felt like a thousand feet. She initially got hurt and then people

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put her into the elevator so that they could take her down to the street to get her some medical

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attention and the cable snapped and she fell a thousand feet and she still live. Betty,

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Lou Oliver. Betty, Lou Oliver. The resulting fire was extinguished in 40 minutes.

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It's still the only fire of such a height that was ever successfully controlled. 14 people were

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killed in the incident and an elevator operator. Betty, Lou Oliver was injured. After rescuers

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decided to transport her on an elevator, which they did not know had weakened cables. It plunged

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75 stories. I guess that'd be what 750 feet. She survived the plunge and it still stands as

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Guinness Book World's record for the longest elevator fall ever recorded with a person who actually

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survived in it. So there was damage. There was loss of life, but the bottom line is that building.

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The Empire State Building did not fall neatly into its own footprint. It didn't weaken the bottom

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part of the structure that wasn't struck by an airplane. Pretty interesting indeed, especially when

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you think about what happened on that faithful day in September of 2001.