Nope . just could not do that job

Never

I wouild MUCH rather do that then work at a fast food restaurant...

Yeah a lot of smooth surfaces and nothing to grab on to. Trusting a rope and a couple of suction cups.

There have been a few stunts on the arch over the years--some successful, others fatal.

One guy climbed all the way up the leg with suction cups and safely parachuted down.

Another guy jumped out of a plane and tried to land his parachute at the top. He almost did it, but he started sliding down the leg and his parachute collapsed. Due to the angle, his reserve wouldn't open either. Slid all the way to the bottom and died. His wife watched the whole thing. Pretty sad deal.

That will be a no for me dawg.

No. Freakin'. Way.

At least, not 'til I can fly on my own...

Edith Bunker voice: "Ohhhh Archiiie!"

I couldnt even watch the guy with the light bulb!

That’s a woods powr grip suction cup. And it either isn’t fully pumped, or is slowly leaking.


No way I’d trust it like that!!! Not at those heights!

Interesting videos, to say the least!

Nope. I wouldn't want anything to do with that. Or changing the lights on that super tall tower from that other video that was posted a while back.

About 4' off the ground is my limit, then there better be a good ladder present. I'm getting old, broken stuff takes longer to heal.

That looks like an adrenaline rush. If you're tied off, you will not fall. It will be scary but so what? How exciting is sitting on the couch, pecking away on a computer? Is this what you thought you'd be doing with your life? Would the 25 year old version of you be embarrassed by who you have become?

Love my job, but not that much. The local power plant electricians earn triple pay for a day of changing light bulbs on the smokestacks that are not near as tall as the Arch.

Maybe. But in my defense, the 25 year old version of me was an immature idiot. Why would I care about his opinion?

He was on " light duty"

Someone had to build that correct


Those radio tower light bulb changes , check those out

If you are interested there is a great movie that I saw a very long time ago in a theater underneath the Arch about its construction.

It is probably on Youtube.

I'd be good with the job in the 1st video...not so much with the 2nd

I dont care what this job pays.

Nope, Nope and double nope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4ERBsbvs_c

My 25 year old self would be pretty impressed with the stuff I've learned since I was his age. I think he would also be impressed that after retirement I was still playing with cars. That kid had goals and worked very hard to achieve them. He is still rattling around inside of me, I hear from him time to time.

At 25 I was working an average of 60 hours a week in factory maintenance as a heavy machine repairman in a brass and aluminum forge shop. I was also running a car repair and Mopar parts business at home after working all day at the full time job. I was buying a 20 year old ranch home in the country. I was married and in May we would celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary (this May will be 45 years) and we just had our 2nd child. I was a car owner at our local dirt track and we finished in the top 10 in points in our class with a 1st year driver last season.

As far as climbing anything to replace burned out light bulbs, that 25 year old might have considered it back then, but this old guy isn't going to. Gene

That is a well written and classy response. Kudos, Sir.

I never thought I would climb telephone and power poles,, telephone only poles in CA are 25 or 30 Ft. tall with 4 or 5 Ft. in the ground so your working with your head around 22 Ft. above the ground.
I needed a job and found out the local phone company was hiring in their construction dept. so I signed up and got hired. I learned after getting hired that I was going to work in their pole line construction department as a apprentice lineman, not in the office building department
I needed a job so I grab it and a year later decided to turn it into career
The tallest pole I had to climb was a 90 Ft antenna pole for our company vehicle radios, after the first 45 Ft. it all looks like along ways down
It is amazing what you can do when you want to

My son is 17 and told me this is what he wants to do. I did tell him he's going to be out in the woods as the apprentice, doing all the stuff the junior man has to do to learn. He's going to be enrolled at a lineman school and then we'll see about getting him a job. If I had to do it over again I might try this, being in the power house has its advantages and disadvantages. I don't know if it's the turbine or Iron Maiden that has cost me some hearing.

I tried to go to work for Southern California Edison in 1969 after getting out of the Army in 1968, Edison wouldn't hire me as I had worked for three years for the phone company and they didn't want to hire someone they hadn't train
I had transfer into the installation and repair department in late 1966 before being drafted to learn more , I was in communications in the Army and mainly did clerical work do to the fighting in Viet Nam and me having a class 3 physical profile, bad vision needing glasses, I was not allow into a combat zone so I did as I was instructed to serve my time.
I install phone service for a young widow with a young daughter in late 1969, her husband had been a journeyman Lineman for SO CA Edison that was killed on the job by a power jumper wire he was forming to hook up a transformer going to a new house that he let touch the 12,500 volt primary power before it should have, he didn't have all the high voltage protection gear on and the power jump down the wire he was forming into his hands and then out of his hip to a anchor wire killing him instantly. I had several friends who work for Edison at that time and they told me later about what had happened, my message is to tell your Son to not let anyone kill him on the job, BE SAFE please
I hear what your saying about working in a power house and the noise, I've taken three tours of Hoover, Boulder Dam outside of Las Vegas, NV , Those turbine where not very loud though
My Father work in a power house for San Diego Power and water for a short while in the early 1950s, he worked on the big commercial diesel engines that drove the generators, very noisy

Electrical safety is paramount! It only takes one time to get complacent that it will kill you. 6 volts to lightning bolts, it all has to be respected. Unfortunately I have been witness to the aftermath of 345kv accident by a landscaper. He thought the bus work was conduit, poor guy never knew what hit him. A tree branch hit the bus, killed him instantly. I have a lot of conversations with him to be careful and don't let youthful exuberance or an idiot supervisor kill you.

???? This does not make sense. What does a bus have to do with electricity?

Electrical bus bar?

I had a young driver , concerned that the over head line was not tall enough to get his load under .. he jumped out , rolled the steel tape measure out .. by time someone yelled stop .. too late

There's an old video... maybe from India? Anyways, a guy is standing on a train, and casually reaches up and touches the wire to steady himself.... He caught fire after he fell over


As for the climbing and changing bulbs? Looks fun. When do I start?

The round aluminum pipe that looks like conduit is commonly called a bus or buswork. Bus bar is in electrical switchgear. The bus I was referring to was the bus work coming out of a transformer. The voltages involved are 345kilovolts. A sapling was growing in the vicinity of the vertical bus that was going up to a feeder tower. The guy cut the sapling, when it was free it touched the bus. His hand was holding the sapling as it hit the bar and he was a direct short to ground.