In General:
The Empire Wasteland spans the locals surrounded Manhattan Island and the former pre-war city of New York's ruins. Once a major port metropole of the United States of America, this shining star of a city didn't get spared of the atomic wrath that engulfed the earth in 2077. A lot of the city's skyscraper were knocked over by the blasts, bar from most notably the Empire State building. Which now stands again as the tallest structure of the wasteland. This new frontier lends his name from this building.
Before The War:
New York City was known by plenty of names. It being the biggest and most famous city on the east-coast. The city was on the forefront of American Idealism that was predominant in the west, where Hollywood shaped the thoughts and desires of the world, New York was the shining model city. Glamorous, Busy and Beautiful, the city that never slept. The theaters of Broadway, the advertising companies of Madison Avenue, the financial heart of the United States, where the World Trade Center commanded the economy of the whole world. Where Lady Liberty's torch lit way towards progress.
New York Express Way in 2074
New York was also one of the first cities to have an express way build, along with monorails and an incredible Underground Transit system. Columbia University, although not Harvard or Yale, was one of the finer institutions of the United States, and the Natural History Museum near the lovely Central Park housed many treasures from days of old. After the second world war, Manhattan also became the art-hub of the free world. Many new art styles like Pop-art unfolded themselves into the scene. But also existing styles like Art-Deco and Fuctionalism shone brightly in the architecture of fancy clubs and skyscrapers. In many ways, it was a city of excesses, and it reveled in every aspect of it.
On That Fateful Day:
The city had already enjoyed a close-call flirt with radiation. Due to enormous demands for electricity from a 17+ million population, a nuclear reactor in New York City goes supercritical, almost causing a meltdown. The near meltdown brings into effect power rationing, and the term "Hot Summer" is used to refer to this incident. But that month of June was nothing compared to the Holocaust of October 23rd, 2077.
On that fateful day, the bombs dropped. And New York City wasn't spared of the flames. Many of the skyscrapers were blasted to the ground, most of which were build in the 21th century. Most notably, The Empire State building withstood the blast, along with the Long Lines Building, a concrete skyscraper with no windows that was especially designed to withstand a nuclear attack. The Statue of Liberty was blasted into pieces, of which huge chunks landed in the Hudson river and the city. Parts, which can still be found today, between the rest of the rubble.
