Companies moving out of the Empire State Building have been fighting for elevator space.

Working in the Empire State Building used to be fun for most employees at Dershowitz, Eiger and Adelson. The panoramic views from the
law firm's 79th-story office suite were among the most stunning in
the city. And ordering lunch or package delivery was easy. Everyone knew where to find them.

But after Sept. 11, an eerie feeling crept through the office. Suddenly, many employees felt like sitting ducks.

"On Sept. 12, I was out looking for new office space," said a Dershowitz legal associate who asked not to give her name. In mid-April, the firm packed up and moved seven blocks away to a blessedly nondescript building on Fifth Avenue and 26th Street.

"It's been very tense, very stressful working here since all this happened," the legal associate said while packing boxes for the move. "I can't wait to be out of here."

While many New Yorkers have returned to their pre-Sept. 11 routines, those in the city's most recognized skyscraper still face daily reminders of the attack and fears their building will be the next target.

Learn more... How safe is the building? Check out the numbers.

"If the World Trade Center is down, what else is a symbol of America? The Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building," says attorney Andrew Brucker of Schecter & Brucker, a law firm on the 45th floor. "Nobody's going to bomb an office building on Sixth Avenue. This is a symbol of America. This is a symbol of New York."

Some tenants in the building remained traumatized months after watching the twin towers burn and then collapse. Those with offices facing southwest could see smoke rising from Ground Zero, three miles away, for weeks.

New security measures in the Empire State Building -- however welcome they may be -- also remind tenants on a daily basis that their workplace is a possible target.

The building has tripled the number of metal detectors and package scanners -- from two each to six each -- and added 25 or 30 employees to the security staff, which now numbers about 100, says Lydia A. Ruth, director of public affairs for the building. Security dogs sniff deliveries for explosives and, for several months everyone entering the building had to present photo identification. (Security
officials decided to dispense with that precaution in April because people were having to wait too long to get in.)

A reporter walked into the building with a 4-inch knife.

Despite these extra security measures, NYC24 reporters found they could easily avoid the inspection devices by walking through ground-floor restaurants to get into the building.

One reporter who carries a 4-inch folding knife in her backpack for self-protection walked through the security check three times without getting stopped.

"Security has improved about 200 percent since Sept. 10, when there was no security," says Brucker. "But if you're talking about the level of security the tenants would like to see we're still not there yet."

Among the improvements Brucker and other tenants have demanded are separate entrances for tenants and visitors (with non-tenants being scrutinized more thoroughly) and a delivery center where messengers would leave packages without going up to offices. Ruth declined to comment on management's plans for further tightening security.

Employees at Dershowitz, Eiger and Adelson (partner Nathan Dershowitz is the brother of celebrity attorney Alan Dershowitz) said inadequate security was part of the reason the firm left the building. "The security downstairs is lax," one employee said. "We don't trust their ability to protect us."

Ruth says only five of the building's 880 tenants have left because of the events of Sept. 11.

"The building is 90 percent leased and new tenants are moving in every day," Ruth says. "We're fine. It's not mass hysteria."

Security officials added four new package scanners after Sept. 11.

But on a recent Friday, two vacating firms were battling for elevator space and sources say several other firms moved in the late fall.

Office workers aren't the only ones avoiding the building. Roberta Tepper, a second-grade teacher at P.S. 75 on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, used to take her class on a field trip to the Empire State Building every year. But this year she decided to skip it.

"I was too nervous about going," she says. "If something happened I'd feel terrible. Either that or I'd be dead."

But while there are plenty of people who share Tepper's anxieties, there are millions of others - New Yorkers and tourists alike -- who still throng the observation deck.

"With the World Trade Center gone, this is the only place to get a view like this," says Jack Brod, president of Empire Diamond Corp. and the longest tenant in the building. "There may be some people who are afraid to come up here. But for every one person who's afraid there are 10,000 who aren't afraid."