Empire State

Steel and girders

They laid my cornerstone in '29

President Hoover

Threw a switch and the sky was mine

Crowds are linin' up Fifth Avenue

Mr. DuPont and his top hat smile

Cameras keep flashin'

Wall Street's crashin'

But the Empire State's come risin'

I'm the Tower of Babel

You want stories, I've got stacks

I rose up from the gravel

With a crack of a hammer

The stutter of a jack

I prayed on Black Sunday

For a ticker-tape parade

I'm an American story

That's how the Empire State was made

Mohawks on I-beams

Only sky on the 100th floor

Italians in blue jeans

Irishmen who came here for more

Swingin' hammers at halfway jigs

'Cause it's better than the old bread line

These night shift gypsies see the lights of Poughkeepsie

Through the clouds from my steel-rimmed shine

I'm the Tower of Babel

You want stories, man, I've got stacks

I rose up from the gravel

Through the gorilla off of my back

I cried that September Tuesday

When the towers came crumbling down

For as long as I'm standin'

I'll be the guardian of New York town

From the seventh wonder

Of the world

The world is nothin'

But its tiny pearl

I'm the Tower of Babel

You want stories, I've got stacks

I rose up from the gravel

With a crack of a hammer

The stutter of a jack

I don't know what will come tomorrow

I'm standin' strong today

I was forged in steel

The king of the newsreel

That's how the Empire State's gonna stay