Monday, August 4, 2008

These give me the "willies", I can't deal with heights

LUNCH ON THE SKYSCRAPER

ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA’ CIRCA 1930

The photos in this presentation are real. Some of them are historical photographs and were made by Charles Ebbets in the early 1930’s.Most of them depict daily scenes of the workers who participated in the construction of the skyscrapers between 1920 and 1935. As you will see, the safety measures were somewhat peculiar and the photos were done trying to play down that situation.

The photographs were taken in New York, on September 29th 1932, and published in the New York Herald Tribune in the Sunday supplement of the Oct. 2nd of that year. It was taken on the 69 floor of the 70 that is the GE building in the Rockefeller Center

Many of these images comprise the Bettmann file, founded by Otto Bettmann in 1936. It contains a collection of 11 million photographs and includes some of the best historical images of the United States. At the present time the file belongs to the Corbis company, property of Bill Gates.











13 comments:

MinnesotaChick said...

That's friggin CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lizardmom said...

Gotta wonder how many died in the pursuit of making these buildings

Beejay said...

I worked across from the First WI bldg when it was being built (now the US Bank Bldg, I believe). We met all the guys working on those girders...scary, as were they.

Made an interesting time while I worked at The Travelers Ins Company in the 60's, 70's, and
80's! Oh, the good old days.

We also watched that Blues Brothers movie being filmed where the cars went off of the 794 spur to Bay View...when there was no spur. Yikes.

Beejay said...

Oh, that was in Milwaukee...oops...bad day for me.
Address for my bldg was 811 East WI Avenue. Oh, the good old days!

hale-bopp said...

Great pics! When we look around, sometimes we forget that people built all this stuff and they worked in some interesting conditions. Is it any wonder Bob the Builder is popular?

drewzepmeister said...

Ya never get me up there...I don't like heights. Great pictures SER!

OrbsCorbs said...

When I view the larger pictures, I actually start to get that "funny feeling" in my legs and stomach. I don't like heights, either.

The Straight Dope: What's the deal with the historical hiring of Native American Indians to work on skyscrapers? Have they all truly been blessed with a lack of fear for heights?

SER said...

Orbs....

The History Channel did an article on them a few years back. Some of the tribes had steel work set up in their yards for the kids to play on. Talk about a real set of “money bars”.

Unknown said...

OMG
I didn't think I was afraid of heights until I saw these........
Thanks Ser they're great............
I'm with Orbs ........my stomach got a little fippy.

AvengingAngel said...

I'll never forget my first visit to the World Trade Center. On the inside observation floor, you could walk right up to the floor to ceiling windows and look straight down the side of the building.

I actually had to baby step up to the window and then slide my foot along the floor until it touched the window. It was pure will that got the rest of my body up to the window.

The whole time, there as a voice screaming in my head "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!"

Great pictures!

SER said...

AA...

I was in Monterey Mexico on the 26 floor of a hotel. Well for shit sakes I couldn’t even stand by the window to look out. I had to stand about 4 feet back; I kept the curtains closed most of the time.

kkdither said...

I love heights.... when I know I'm safe. I stayed in a hotel on the 19th floor above the St. Lawrence Seaway in Montreal and another 20+ floor hotel overlooking Niagara Falls. You had to pry me away from the view. They were both spectacular.

It is a trip to walk to the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge though. That was a little bit scary. The wind is amazingly strong and it is so open. You also have in the back of your mind how many people have jumped and died from there.

There is a huge bridge you can walk across in Dubuque, over the Mississippi River. Don't walk it if you have vertigo. The trucks whiz past you. That one really scared me.

fungi said...

that looks like what I did for awhile back in the 80's only not quite so high. orbs the native americans just had an inate sense of balance. which is what you really need up there.nice pics ser,thanks for showing us you don't need all the rules and regs to get the job done and still go home at the end of the day.