The Empire State Building gets its name from New York State which is nicknamed the Empire State. It was built in 1931 and is 1,250 feet tall. By comparison the Eiffel Tower in Paris is only 984 feet tall New York City has many tall buildings besides the Empire State Building. The Chrysler building and the twin towers of the World Trade Center are two others.
Tall buildings have to be built in a special way in order to flex and bend with the wind.
If they couldn't flex they would crack and break. The odd thing about New York City was that no one there thought there was anything unusual about Bud visiting the Empire State Building. They didn't because they never noticed him. Their eyes were locked straight ahead to where they were going, never looking left or right. The ticket taker took Bud's ticket without any break in stride at all.