Construction workers used to build skyscrapers without harnesses
Talk about an OH&S issue. The construction of the world’s first skyscrapers was no mean feat and required some serious guts, with brave workers doing their jobs without helmets, harnesses or safety ropes. One wrong move and they were toast, with virtually nothing keeping workers from an 85 metre drop.
Despite this considerable risk workers often laughed in the face of danger, posing for funny pictures like the iconic Lunch atop a Skyscraper taken during the construction of New York’s RCA Building.
At four dollars a day they were earning twice the average wage for manual labour, but it hardly seems like adequate compensation when you consider the immense dangers they faced daily. It was hard work too – gruelling, eight hour days without any real toilet or lunch breaks.
From 1860 to 1900 the population of the United States of America great from 31 million to 75 million, and urban areas were under pressure to cater for this demand. The answer? Skyscrapers.
William Starrett, a foreman who worked on some of these immense construction projects, typifies the risks involved with these major buildings. “Building skyscrapers is the nearest peacetime equivalent of war,” Mr Starrett told the History Channel. “In fact, the analogy is startling, even to the occasional grim reality of a building accident where maimed bodies, and even death, remind us that we are fighting a war of construction against the forces of nature.”
And it wasn’t just New York. Construction of Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge was similarly hazardous with 16 workers losing their life on the job to make the bridge with workers often faced with conditions that would send a modern OH&S representative into hysterics.
So if you’re having a lousy day at work, maybe take a moment to say thanks that you’re not dangling 100 metres in the air. We owe these brave workers a considerable debt of gratitude.
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