They are the iron workers who “connect” the steel beams together at the top of the project. They are usually perched on the last piece of iron that may only have a couple of bolts in it and the catch the next piece that is being swung into place by a crane and use a “spud wrench” which has a tapered shank that they use to line up the bolt holes and stick a bolt or two in place by hand to anchor the beam. Crews come in later to finish putting bolts in holes and tightening everything up.
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Got it, thanks!
I enjoy watching these guys work from my downtown office as new construction goes up. It is fascinating.
I also like the tradition of placing a tree when the top is first laid, and often an American flag.
When we lived in Wisconsin, we saw numerous grave markers similar to this one to mark the final resting places of loggers.:
The practice stared with an organization called “Woodmen of the World” (WOW) and until around 1900, life insurance policies included the cost of these unique grave markers.
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They call that “topping out” the building. Then the connectors are off to the next project. Although I never did any iron work we used to like to ride the headache ball to the ground at the end of the day. I don’t think that is allowed anymore unless you are an iron worker.
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Neat. Thanks, I was unaware of these.
Very interesting. Thanks
Do you know where the tradition comes from?
No I don’t know for sure. I worked with the pipe fitters and we would closely follow the iron workers so I got to know a few but never asked.
Thanks.
Here’s a wiki. It goes back a lot longer than I thought.
What a delightful tradition!
Thanks for thinking to look this up.
I had to find out for myself so passing along the info was easy peasy as they say.
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“Chance favors the prepared mind.” - Louis Pasteur
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Reminds me of the Arnold Palmer quote “The more I practice the luckier I get”.
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Take it Outside, lads.
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Thanks, Beef.
I was just going to comment this is not a quote and we should stop, even though the history of science is a fascinating topic.
I am going to kill the earlier off-topic posts.
“Record companies have a peculiar way of making sure that your expenses always exceed your profits.”
Frank Zappa
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"If I were awoken after sleeping 1000 years, my first question would be: Has the Riemann hypothesis been proved? - David Hilbert
“Nothing is better than music. When it takes us out of time, it has done more for us than we have the right to hope for. It has broadened the limits of our sorrowful lives; it has lit up the sweetness of our hours of happiness by effacing the pettinesses that diminish us. It brings us back to the pure and the new.”
- Nadia Boulanger, of whom Ned Rorem famously said, "So far as musical pedagogy is concerned–and by extension of musical creation–Nadia Boulanger is the most influential person who ever lived.”
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