Hanging with the Guys at the Top
Today we're hanging out with some of the bravest construction guys ever assembled in the city: those who helped build the original World Trade Center and those who've been finishing up on the Freedom Tower.
In 1979, photographer Peter B. Kaplan spent 12 days shooting the crew as they installed a new piece of the communications antenna to the top of the World Trade Center's North Tower. The antenna was added to the North Tower in 1978 and extended some 360 feet into the sky. So when he captured these guys hoisting the antenna into place, they were all about 1,728 feet off the ground:
Contrast that with today's crew. Back on May 24th, the Port Authority snapped this shot of ironworkers bolting the new communications spire into place on top of the Freedom Tower. The spire is 408 feet high so that means these guys were about 1,776 feet off the ground:
But it's not always hard work at the top. Back in 1979, the guys took a break to have some fun with Kaplan's camera. Fittingly, he called this shot "Moon Over Manhattan":
But when it came time for today's spire gang to pose for their own shot on May 10th, they took a more conventional approach. Perhaps there's a "moon shot" out there we'll get to see someday:
Let's hear it for the boys.