a long climb
October 23, 2009 at 2:16 pmDC, NoMA, constructon
a long climb, originally uploaded by m hoek.
Tomorrow Clark is scheduled to take down the last remaining tower crane from Constitution Square. We had five swinging around for most of the project. I had always intended to climb up to the top (150 feet above terra firma) but had not gotten around to pulling the trigger. As the window of opportunity closed I jumped at the chance to give it a go this morning. The picture above is my view from the bottom level of the garage looking up on my 180′ vertical climb.
Very happy I got around to doing it. The views of the city are phenomenal and it was a good “check of the life list”.
Spent a while up top talking Paul, the crane operator. He is from the Caymans by way of Columbia Heights and has been working as an operator for about 12 years now. Paul is a fan of the city, loves living here, but is troubled by the crime that continues to plague the city despite apparent physical improvements. He has seen huge changes in the Columbia Heights neighborhood but still has high hopes for continued improvement. A very nice guy and I’m happy to have been able to chat with him way way up high.
Some pics of the view are available here: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=91138915@N00&q=constitution+square+tower+crane&m=text
Info about the project here: http://www.constitutionsquaredc.com/
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October 23rd, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Awesome pictures…I got so dizzy I almost fell out of my chair!
October 23rd, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Great composition, this could be so many things. My husband works with swing staging, etc. He’s climbed a lot of these.