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Excuse me while I kiss the sky…
OK… how did they build the tower in the first place? No way they used a crane. Imagine standing on top of that tower trying to lasso a huge chunk of pipe swinging under a helicopter propwash, in the wind.
No matter how tough you think your own job is, you have just been humbled and owned.
Towers are built with a device called a gin pole. It is lifted above the completed sections and then used to lift the next section.
When the TV station I worked at was putting up a 1500 foot tower I made sure to get a picture of the top section because that was the last time I was ever going to see it.
I made about 4 trips to the 135′ level of the studio tower. But that was back when I was middle-aged and foolish.
Gin pole in action:
If you look at the base of the tower you see that the entire weight of the tower and guylines is supported by a piece of steel less than a foot in diameter.
Uncle Dave – that is a good find.
A few thoughts – I wonder:
– Do the workers get paid by the job or by the hour?
– How many times a year do they have to do this.
– Getting down looks more difficult than climbing up
Anyone who climbs at that height and thinks that tying off is a waste of time is careless. If I had the time or inclination, I’d search through OSHA regulations. I’m guessing that OSHA isn’t “OK” with climbing without fall arrest.
Video was taken down 🙁
can still be found at http://youtube.com/watch?v=Dae7DdfJ1ts
[It seems to still be up, but I replaced the link with this Youtube version. – UD]
Very interesting – I would like to try it, but then I think that when actually faced with the shear scale of the height at the top of the elevator, I think I’d chicken out.
#3 – WmDE
Thanks for the link, that was really interesting. I finally learned something on this Blog!
Those are some craaaazy people… at about 3:30 notice the guys hanging from the bottom of the piece of tower that is hanging from the crane that is hanging from the side of the tower… they should wear some special mark that REQUIRES you to buy them a beer if you see them at a bar. (On second thought, that might not be such a great idea).
A guy in engineering sent me that movie a couple of days ago, it gave me a blood nose just watching it.
I think free climbing that high is okay…as long as you have a parachute…
Scaling a 1700 foot tower doesn’t seem all that difficult when you take an elevator to 1600 feet.
I wonder how long it takes to get up and down. Salute to the workers.
OK, I hate getting on my roof of my house. This is not a job for me.
Kudo’s to those who do. I wonder what they do if they forget something?
@13
They send the apprentice down to get it 🙂
I’m not afraid of heights, but I am afraid of widths. Seriously, I was really uncomfortable watching this. I’m not ashamed to say but my asshole bit a hole through my BVDs.
Excuse me but…what happens if they want to go to the bathroom?
When you rationalize it, any fall over a few floors would kill you anyway. You can’t hit the ground with a speed over terminal velocity. I still got sick looking at the video.
Bugger that for a joke. Makes sitting in morning traffic seem reasonable in comparison
I got the Heebee Geebees just watching this.
If you fell off the pole it is likely the tool bag would catch on the hand holds, and you’d fall in an arc directly into the pole.
@George
This is why only men could be engineers years back. They could pee over the side. Up here you always pee down wind.
We are told the ancestors of humans once lived in trees. They might have had a blast using something like that as a play ground. If so I’m not all that closely related to them.
There is no way I’d climb that; not even if I had six hands and a prehensile tail.
I will add that I’d love to see those two videos in supermax and 3D while strapped into a theater chair.
#17 “When you rationalize it, any fall over a few floors would kill you anyway.”
OSHA makes you tie off above 6 feet. You know that 8 foot or 10 foot ladder used in most office building that have 10 foot ceilings those works should be tied off.
Eeeeeyaaaaooouuugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The amazing, adaptable human animal.
They should either bury cables or send it by sattelite. In this day and age there should be no reason to worry these boy’s mamas.
Nice to know people in High Places.
there’s a 30 pound bag under me too and it’s not filled with tools
Don’t these people believe in strong ‘Occupational Health and Safety’ laws?
There’s no way known that anyone would be fool enough to climb anything like that height without proper safety protection, here in Australia. Maybe still having strong trade unions here still means something.
I would love to “transport” to the top of this structure, freak out for 30 seconds, and then “transport” home.
Much, much higher structures are coming. Let’s call them fountains of paradise. Nanotech may be the key to outer space meeting the Earth’s surface.