Skyscraper Ironworkers of the 1930s: Catching Red-Hot Rivets in the Sky

Before tower cranes existed, skyscrapers were built by men standing on open steel, guiding beams that weighed several tons into place by hand. This documentary shows how ironworkers raised the frames of New York's greatest towers, including the Empire State Building, with no harnesses, no safety nets and very little machinery. Between the 1880s and the early 1930s, New York's skyline climbed higher every year, and every beam went up through a system that is almost entirely gone today. This video walks through that system step by step: how steam derricks lifted columns, how connectors lined up beams in the wind using nothing but spud wrenches and nerve, and how four-man riveting gangs tossed, caught and drove red-hot rivets hundreds of times a day. It's the story of a skilled, dangerous trade that was passed down by watching and doing, and that disappeared within a single generation. The Steel Ledger explores the engineering history behind the great cities of the modern world, from New York and Chicago to London and beyond.