Just the still photos of that stuff make me fall over
Went inside the Chrysler building many years back & went to the top few floors. The lobby is incredible, and near the top, I could feel the thing swaying with the breeze. What an artful building, easy to see why it's been used in so many movies.
Re: Building the Chrysler building
[Re: topside]
#2826264 09/28/2009:12 PM09/28/2009:12 PM
My observations, amazing how apparently lightweight the sheet metal SS eagle heads were.
Not a safety belt in sight, wonder what the accident rate was, and done in the Great depression, and wearing Fedoras.
My personal relatable experience here was working High Rise construction in Fla during summer school vacations. I got my HS Diploma on a Wed night, and Thursday Am I was on Miami Beach on the 26th top Floor working the "pass line", with my right toes hanging over the edge, meaning we hourly passed up the concrete forms manually from two floors down, ONLY safety equipment we had nearly fifty years later were hard hats, no safety belts, no railings. I have a great respect for heights, but the most uncomfortable adjustment was riding up the exterior open personnel elevator when in the 3-5 floor range of height, at that height the ground was still very much discernible and relatable, but from the 26th floor, it was like looking at a post card of the Grand canyon, hard to relate to, and easier to put out of your mind. One other thing though I noticed in this film, we seldom much talked about the height or danger in failing, which was always there, but few would ever discuss it, like the film does, which is probably just theatrics i suspect. It was also the accepted norm that more men fell off a building during their lunch hours, which upset the rest of the crew because the job would be shut down for rest of the day.
Reality check, that half the population is smarter then 50% of the people and it's a constantly contested fact.
Re: Building the Chrysler building
[Re: jcc]
#2826516 09/29/2004:07 PM09/29/2004:07 PM
Back then, it is no wonder that there were fewer skydivers, mountain climbers and thrillseekers. Doing a job like that is enough of a rush. I wonder how many were alcoholics!
Re: Building the Chrysler building
[Re: Kern Dog]
#2829617 10/07/2002:17 AM10/07/2002:17 AM
Being a naïve Aussie tourist many years ago I walked around the Chrysler Building main foyer or lobby taking loads of photos of all the beautiful marble fittings and mosaics, after I did a couple rolls of film (pre digital) I then spotted the sign 'No Photos' oops, too late. I quickly left so I have some great snaps of the ground floor foyer.
Last edited by fullonmopar; 10/07/2002:39 AM.
Re: Building the Chrysler building
[Re: fullonmopar]
#2829642 10/07/2008:34 AM10/07/2008:34 AM
Being a naïve Aussie tourist many years ago I walked around the Chrysler Building main foyer or lobby taking loads of photos of all the beautiful marble fittings and mosaics, after I did a couple rolls of film (pre digital) I then spotted the sign 'No Photos' oops, too late. I quickly left so I have some great snaps of the ground floor foyer.
Guess, they want to keep it a secret?
Reality check, that half the population is smarter then 50% of the people and it's a constantly contested fact.
Re: Building the Chrysler building
[Re: jcc]
#2829662 10/07/2009:20 AM10/07/2009:20 AM
Not a safety belt in sight, wonder what the accident rate was
I'm sure there were "accidents", but as far as fatalities, there were none on the Chrysler building, there were 5 deaths on the Empire State Building...the World Trade Center had 60 deaths,.... I know when I climb structures I hate any safety equipment/harnesses as it's more cumbersome and prone to hanging me up
Re: Building the Chrysler building
[Re: DAYCLONA]
#2829751 10/07/2011:47 AM10/07/2011:47 AM
I put up and took down my share of tube and clamp scaffolding, just not at those heights, but still high enough to kill you if you were unlucky enough to fall . When I first learning to do piece outs of water wall boiler tubes, I was taken up inside the boiler on a sky climber. The boiler was around 8 stories high and maybe 50 by 50 feet square maybe bigger. We went up about 60 feet and I was in a cold sweat. Down below there was a platform and some wise ass was grabbing the skyclimber cables and swinging them and so the thing now is swinging back and forth and everyone enjoyed seeing me scared shitless. I eventually got use to it and worked at higher heights but I could never handle being a iron worker.. Those guys are a breed on to themselves. You either have it or you dont when it comes to working at those heights and I dont have it.
Re: Building the Chrysler building
[Re: Kippy]
#2834167 10/18/2010:52 AM10/18/2010:52 AM
VERY interesting in many ways. I also couldn't have ever done that. Interesting seeing the ages of some of those guys. When the average life expectancy was probably 60 at best, some of those guys looked pretty close to that already, and they were climbing around that scaffolding! Tough guys!
I also was suprised how thin the sheet metal seemed.
Facts are stubborn things.
Re: Building the Chrysler building
[Re: jcc]
#2834261 10/18/2003:48 PM10/18/2003:48 PM
My observations, amazing how apparently lightweight the sheet metal SS eagle heads were.
Not a safety belt in sight, wonder what the accident rate was, and done in the Great depression, and wearing Fedoras.
My personal relatable experience here was working High Rise construction in Fla during summer school vacations. I got my HS Diploma on a Wed night, and Thursday Am I was on Miami Beach on the 26th top Floor working the "pass line", with my right toes hanging over the edge, meaning we hourly passed up the concrete forms manually from two floors down, ONLY safety equipment we had nearly fifty years later were hard hats, no safety belts, no railings. I have a great respect for heights, but the most uncomfortable adjustment was riding up the exterior open personnel elevator when in the 3-5 floor range of height, at that height the ground was still very much discernible and relatable, but from the 26th floor, it was like looking at a post card of the Grand canyon, hard to relate to, and easier to put out of your mind. One other thing though I noticed in this film, we seldom much talked about the height or danger in failing, which was always there, but few would ever discuss it, like the film does, which is probably just theatrics i suspect. It was also the accepted norm that more men fell off a building during their lunch hours, which upset the rest of the crew because the job would be shut down for rest of the day.
Wow, I bet you have some memories for sure! That's quite a thing; right out of high school! I took a lot longer to grow up! :)I noticed the Fedoras too, and was thinking about those guys being dressed nicer than some people you see out to eat in a restaurant these days.
True, but none are as iconic as the Chrysler Building and don't have the art deco style. edit: Tried to time stamp it again and failed, just ff to 19 seconds.
Last edited by 3hundred; 10/18/2009:40 PM. Reason: time stamp