8. The Empire State Building Has Its Own Steam Power Plant

Empire State Building steam plant

Steam is supplied by Con Edison below ground to the Empire State Building and the plant inside uses the steam to produce heat and air conditioning. One room down here is known as the “watch station,” where the engineers monitor the pressure and water levels in the system.

The engineers have an important job, and the pride in their work is clear from our interaction with them. Siobhan says what happens down here is, “very important, especially when it gets cold when we have the first deep freeze — 90 year old pipes, a lot of them, over 60 miles of pipe throughout this building so they have a big job on their hands.”