Out My Window -- Acrophobes take warning!

Out my office window the past two days this is going on across the river valley...
My colleague pulled out his telephoto and snapped some shots.

Yesterday...

Hmm, tower going up:


How'd you like the job of bolting it together?


This morning, they're a bit further along:


Do you see any cables tying those gentlemen to the walkways?

lets not forget the climb up.. i dont see any elevators.. those guys must calves like iron.. no cables to keep it standing up either art..

I've seen a few tower cranes go up back in my construction inspector days. Sure not a job I could do. Riggers and ironworkers are a whole other breed compared to most of us. That clanging sound you hear when they walk is made by more than just the tools hanging from their belts.

I've never seen anyone wear a safety cable when working on a wide walkway like that (with a railing, no less), though. To those guys, that walkway is like a boulevard.

A bazillion years ago I had a high steel patient. He picked up his first pair of multi-focal glasses. They were trifocals (3 powers in each lens). He was working on the steel skeleton on the 29th floor of the Occidental Building in the LA area. I warned him about getting used to the lenses and don't wear them until you are in familiar surroundings.

He looked around the office and said, "No problem." Somewhere I have a snapshot of him standing on an 8" (that 8" is a guess, not a measurement) girder with nothing around him except space---wearing his new trifocals. All of the places with walls and floors were a few stories below him and of absolutely no use if he stepped wrong.

"They" are definitely a different breed than most of us. Their proprioception must be as good as a high wire performer.

Enjoy,
JimB