How was the Empire State Building transported?

The Empire State Building was designed to "break-apart" into 3 sections. The sections simply "sat on each other" and did not require and additional securing. The bi-planes also just pulled out from holes drilled into the structure and the rest of the characters and decorations were secured onto their sections with royal icing and were transported attached.

Transportation was a first concern for me when constructing the building and I decided to put some though into enhancing the flat wooden base to help aid moving the structure once it was assembled.

The wooden 24" x 24" base was constructed from two sheets of plywood with 1x2 pine spacers sandwiched between the sheets creating long hollow gaps under the entire base. I used two 3' long copper pipes and slid them into the two outer most gaps to make handles so two people could lift, move, load and re-position the piece when fully assembled. (See photos 12 and 13 above, the gaps can be seen on the left hand side of the base in those photos, the copper pipes are not seen in any of the photos and were only installed when moving the house.)

Additionally, during the construction I found places where I could "segment" the tower. Ultimately I ended up with 3 sections.

The primary gingerbread section consisted of the wider base of the building plus the longest section of the tower which extended up all the way up to where the main tower begins to "stair step" near the top quarter of the building. The top of the first section is at the bottom of the first and second photos above. This section was about 4' tall in total. The top of this section was unfinished and the rice crispy interior structure could be seen when the section section was removed.

The base of the second section was also the "cap" of the primary tower. The base of the second section was cut so it snugly dropped into the top of the first section and rested on top of the rice crispy treat interior approximately 1/4" below the top of the primary towers walls. You can see how this worked in photo 1 above. This allowed the walls to hold the second section in place as it rested on the interior structure. This design worked so well, it was not necessary to secure the sections together which allowed them to remain "loose" so they could be easily detached for transport later on. The interior of the second section was hollow but had a ledge of gingerbread 1/4" down from the interior walls for the "top section" to rest on.

The "top section" was the cap of the second section and included the antenna spire and the Donkey Kong Santa. Again this section simply rested down onto interior ledge of the second section. Again it was not necessary to "secure" the third section allowing it to be removed and re-installed at will. How these sections "married" is also best seen in photo 1 above.

To transport the tower to the auction, we called on our friend Sean Williams. I divided the Tower into it's three sections and slid the copper pipes into the wooden base. Moving the tower was quite easy at that point. Sean owns a Mini-Van and fortunately the base section was just short enough to clear the top of the sliding side door of his van by 1/2". This was not by design but by luck... The second and third sections were simply carried out and sat next to the primary section. If the house had not fit into Sean's van, we would have had to find someone with an open bed pickup truck.

Hope this helps illuminate how the piece was designed and ultimately transported to/from the auction here in Lawrence, KS.

That is simply amazing! I dread transporting my creations each year. Never thought about making anything too high from pure fear of transporting. Thank you for the break down.