NEW YORK: The Empire State Building celebrated India on August 8, by shining green, white and orange on the building’s east side in honor of the colors of India’s flag. The Empire State Building is celebrating the countries competing in this year’s Olympics by lighting each of the four sides of its famed tower—north, south, east and west—the colors of participating countries’ flags each night throughout the summer games.

This marks the first time that the world famous building has split the tower’s sides with four separate country’s lights in its history. For the 17 nights of the Olympics, the monumental lightings are meant to honor the top 66 countries participating in the games, based on the number of athletes attending from each country.

"The Empire State Building is honoring the athletes that have trained and worked their entire lives to make it to this international stage of competition where unity, athleticism and sportsmanship are revered," said James Connors, General Manager for the Empire State Building.

"We are proud that the Empire State Building can be a part of this international celebration and hope that its tower lights are another source of pride for the athletes and their countries taking part in the summer games." In the past few years, the Empire State Building has also been recognizing Indian Independence Day on August 15, by lighting its tower in the Indian flag colors.

To cite history, it was in 1932, that a searchlight beacon alerting people for 50 miles that Franklin D. Roosevelt had been elected president of the United States was the first light to shine on top of the Empire State Building, and in 1976, colored lighting was first introduced as the tower was lit in red, white and blue to celebrate the American Bicentennial.

The Empire State Building’s tower lights are internationally recognized and are illuminated to commemorate holidays, events and causes that are of importance to New Yorkers, Americans and citizens of the world. The Empire State Building was recently named America’s favorite building in a poll conducted by the American Institute of Architects.