I worked as a concrete laborer on a high-rise building in downtown Denver. At 53 stories, Energy Center III was the Tallest Building in Denver when it was finished. I was there from when it was a two story hole in the ground to the 35th floor before I quite...pure hell. I still have fucking nightmares about that job... Energy Center III went on to become the most unleased office space in the city. Even worse has already happened in Dubai. ZW
I've walked the beams, but I'll tell ya, it's even scarier being below,where shit can drop on your head. I had many close calls, but the worst was where a steelworker dropped a "Spud Wrench" from about five floors up. A spud wrench is a steel spike about 12-14" long that they use to line up the bolt holes on those giant steel beams. I was on the ground and all I heard was a "thwack"... That spike hit tip first and pierced right through three sheets of 1'' form plywood that I had been stacking less than four feet from where I was standing. My hard hat wouldn't have made any difference at all... I was home sick the day a Carpenter from our company was killed in the track of the "skip" (cargo elevator) I knew the operator of that skip, he was not the same man after that day... The blood of men is in those structures...Blood traded for mere wage. ZW
the problem with human memory is that others blood is graffiti to be painted over with the whitewash of "progress"
Unfortunately, there are bloodstains on all monumental human endeavors ... engineering works, explorations, spaceflights, etc, etc. That is certainly not meant to excuse anything, and whether or not those activities actually represent "progress" is another discussion, but the next life to be lost engaging in them will not be the last. Anyway, was anyone else struck by the parallels to the biblical story with this tower? And Browning's question of "what's a heaven for?" suddenly took on new meaning for me. Indeed, what is a heaven for, if not for humans to attempt to climb to it?
