Facts and sources · 《410 天》 (410 Days)
Every claim in the on-screen text and narration, listed with its source and the source's wording. Checked on 2026-10-20 (before the last render, each item was compared against audio/lines.json and the on-screen text in index.html).
On-screen text is Chinese (some of it bilingual); it is quoted as it appears, with an English gloss where needed.
The main sources are two first-hand documents of the time:
- S1 Official brochure: What Everybody Wants to Know About Empire State: Facts and Figures About the World's Greatest Structure, Empire State, Inc., printed 1931 (catalogued by Columbia University Libraries as "[1930?]", but its chronology runs to the opening on 1 May 1931). Internet Archive
ldpd_11290475_000: https://archive.org/details/ldpd_11290475_000 (page 2 = scan 0001 "How Big Is It?", page 3 = 0002 "Empire State Statistics" and the scale drawing, page 4 = 0003 chronology, "The Men Who Did the Job", map) - S2 Film intertitles: Empires of Steel (produced by American Bridge Company / U.S. Steel, made by Pathescope, 1930–31, silent). https://archive.org/details/EmpiresOfSteel (seconds are times within that file)
On screen / narration
| On screen | Narration | Claim | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Title 「410 天」 (410 days), and 「410 天」 at the end | "Four hundred and ten days." | 1930-03-17 first steel → 1931-05-01 opening = 410 days | F1, F8 (our arithmetic), F9 |
| 帝國大廈 · 紐約 1930–1931 (Empire State Building · New York 1930–1931) | — | Years of construction and opening | F1, F8 |
| 第五大道 33–34 街 (Fifth Avenue, 33rd–34th Streets) (lower third on the map) | "Fifth Avenue. The old Waldorf-Astoria site." | Location; the plot is the old Waldorf-Astoria hotel site | F2 |
| 第一根鋼 · 1930.3.17 · 第 0 天 (first steel · 1930.3.17 · day 0) | "March seventeenth, nineteen thirty. First steel." | Date the first steel was set | F1 |
| 九臺吊車 (nine derricks) | "Nine derricks lift the frame." | Nine derricks start raising the steel frame from the basement | F6 |
| 44 噸 / 44 TONS EACH | "Some columns weigh forty-four tons." | Some of the lower column sections weigh 44 tons each | F7 |
| 每週 4½ 層 (4½ floors a week) | "Four and a half floors of steel, every week." | Four and a half stories of steel frame erected every week | F3 |
| 出廠 80 小時，就鉚進樓裡 (riveted into the building 80 hours after leaving the mill) | "Eighty hours from the mill in Pittsburgh to a rivet in the frame." | Steel members were riveted into the building 80 hours after leaving the mill in Pittsburgh | F3 |
| Brochure heading "THE MEN WHO DID THE JOB" | "The men who did the job?" | The brochure really has a column with this heading (the film shows only the heading, not the list of names below it) | F4 |
| 每天 2,500 人 / 最多一天約 4,000 人 (2,500 men a day / about 4,000 at most in one day) | "Twenty-five hundred men a day. Up to four thousand." | An average of 2,500 men a day, about 4,000 at most in a single day | F3 |
| Scale chart: 伍爾沃斯 (Woolworth) 792 / 埃菲爾鐵塔 (Eiffel Tower) 984 / 克萊斯勒 (Chrysler) 1,046 / 帝國大廈 (Empire State) 1,250 (feet) | "Twelve hundred and fifty feet." | Heights of the four structures; the line drawings are taken from the brochure's own scale drawing | F5 |
| 世界最高 / TALLEST IN THE WORLD | "The tallest structure in the world." | In 1931 it was the tallest structure (of any kind) in the world | F5 |
| 1930.9.15 鋼架到 86 層 · 第 182 天 (1930.9.15 steel reaches the 86th floor · day 182) | — | Date the last steel was set on the 86th floor; 1930-03-17 → 09-15 = 182 days (our arithmetic) | F1 |
| 102 層 (102 floors) (end point of the tower's counter, and the ending) | — | 102 stories above the street | F5 |
| 1931.5.1 開放 · 比計劃提前近一個月 (1931.5.1 opened · nearly a month ahead of schedule) | "May first, nineteen thirty-one. Open, nearly a month early." | Formal opening date; nearly a month ahead of the schedule set at the start of construction | F1 |
The floor counter in the tower section (86 → 102) is a graphic animation: the floors in between carry no dates, and only the two points dated in F1 (86th floor on 15 September, opening on 1 May) appear as text. The same holds for the 80-hour counter and the 2,500-men counter: only the end figure is a fact.
F1 Chronology (S1 page 4, scan 0003)
"March 17, 1930—First steel for the Empire State foundations set in place." "September 15, 1930—Last steel set on the 86th floor." "May 1, 1931—Empire State formally opened to the public less than two years from the beginning of demolition on the site and nearly a month ahead of the schedule made at the beginning of construction."
From "How Big Is It?" (S1 page 2):
"Steel work was begun March 17, 1930, and completed in 6 months — a record."
F2 Location and plot (S1 page 2, scan 0001)
"LOCATION: West side of Fifth Avenue, between 34th Street and 33rd Street." "DIMENSIONS OF PLOT: 197.5 feet on Fifth Avenue, 424.95 feet on 34th Street and 33rd Street. (This comprises the plot of the old Waldorf-Astoria and additional land.)"
The map in the film is the map on page 4 of the same brochure; the red circle is drawn where the map marks "EMPIRE STATE BLDG.".
F3 Workforce, speed, 80 hours (S1 page 3 "Empire State Statistics", scan 0002)
"An average of 2,500 men were employed daily in Empire State construction work, the maximum number for any one day being about 4,000." "Four and one-half stories of steel were erected every week. Each steel member reached the building accurately marked to indicate its position and was riveted into place only 80 hours after being fabricated in the mills at Pittsburgh."
The red marker in the film underlines exactly these two sentences of the original (document close-up 18.5–23.25 s, 80-hours section 25.25–28.0 s).
F4 "The Men Who Did the Job" (S1 page 4, scan 0003)
The heading of the brochure's right-hand column reads: "THE MEN WHO DID THE JOB"; below it are listed the owners, directors, architects, contractors and engineers in charge. The film only circles this heading to ask the question, then answers with site footage and photographs of the workers; the list itself neither appears nor is altered.
F5 Height and comparisons (S1 pages 2 and 3)
"HEIGHT OF BUILDING: 102 stories above the street, 2 stories below grade. 1,250 feet to the tip of the mooring mast. … The building is the tallest structure of any kind in the world. The Eiffel Tower is 984 feet, the Chrysler Building, 1,046 feet to the tip of its spire … The Bank of Manhattan Building is 838 feet, the Woolworth Building 792 feet."
Labels on the scale drawing on the right of page 3: "WOOLWORTH BLDG. 792 feet", "EIFFEL TOWER 984 feet", "CHRYSLER 1046 feet", "EMPIRE STATE 1250 feet". The four line drawings in the film are cut from this drawing, straightened, and stood again on one ground line at a common scale (0.56 px / foot); the red measuring lines are drawn to length in feet.
Note on the claim: "tallest in the world" is the 1931 brochure's statement, and the film uses it only in the context of 1931.
F6 Nine derricks (S2 intertitle, about 181–183 s)
"Nine derricks in action start the erection from the basement."
F7 44-ton column sections (S2 intertitle, about 238–240 s)
"Some of the lower column sections weigh 44 tons each."
The freeze frame is the column-lifting shot that immediately follows this intertitle (from source 248.4 s, the frame at 1.1 s).
F8 410 days (our arithmetic) and date check
- 1930-03-17 → 1931-05-01:
python3 -c "from datetime import date; print((date(1931,5,1)-date(1930,3,17)).days)"→ 410 - 1930-03-17 → 1930-09-15: same method → 182
F9 Corroboration
- Wikipedia "Empire State Building": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building
"Construction started on March 17, 1930, and the building opened thirteen and a half months afterward on May 1, 1931."
Conflicts noticed during checking (not in the film)
- The film's intertitle says "September 19th—Six months after placing the first billet, the steel erection of the main building is completed—85 stories, involving 58,000 tons of steel"; the brochure says the last steel was set on the 86th floor on 15 September and the steel frame weighs 60,000 tons in total. The two disagree; the film uses only the brochure's 15 September / 86th floor and no tonnage.
- The film intertitle "First column set April 8, 1930" refers to the first column; the brochure's 17 March refers to the first foundation steel (billets / grillage). The film's "第一根鋼" (first steel) uses 17 March, and the picture is the steel grillage being set (source 114 s), consistent with the brochure.