Photos 29 Apr 2007 08:21 am
Cranes are Flying
New York seems, at the moment, to be undergoing enormous construction. (Or is it reconstruction?) One can’t help but come upon cranes of every size occupying whole blocks and streets making traffic somewhat complicated – both auto and pedestrian.
The crane to the left can be seen from many blocks away. It occupies 30th Street and Madison Ave. This is an enormous piece of equipment. From a block away it virtually looks as tall as the Empire State Building, behind it. (Of course, it’s significantly shorter, but can you imagine what they needed to construct that building!)
Interestingly enough, there’s a second crane – albeit much shorter – half a block away which is working on another construction site. At times, traffic backs up for blocks. See both in the image below.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
Here are two other views of the same two cranes. The tall one from a block away looking down over a couple of buildings. The image on the right is the short crane as seen from the base of the tall crane.
If you look up to 42nd St from 14th St, you see a mass of construction going on uptown. Even just out of the frame on both the left and right, there’s more. The crane below is to the left at 18th Street. It’s enormous when standing straight up and down. Here it’s bent to pick up materials.
I like the color of the sky against all the cranes pushing into the sky at the right.
Here’s another shot of the same crane from the other side of a building.
The crane above is on 19th Street just east of Broadway. Traffic seems to have learned how to maneuver around these things as it flows without too much difficulty.
I like the physical appearance of these machines. They’re almost attractive in their ugliness. Some of them, like this one, has a cab at the base which harbors a driver who moves the crane about. Others, the larger ones, seem to be built into a construction site of their own. There’s definitely a form to them, and they also seem to match the mesh that covers many of the buildings.
(Two views of the Empire State Building from 23rd Street.)
However, all you have to do is look at some of the buildings left behind,
and everything’s OK.
