This gallery showcases the amazing work of photographer Lewis Wickes Hine 1874-1940, a pioneering social photographer. All of the images were taken in 1931 during the construction of the Empire State Building. Many of the images may give you chills as the workers traverse steal beams unsecured with no harnesses.
1
View of the building rising to about sixteen stories
2
Icarus, high up on Empire State
4
Worker pulling on a rope
5
Worker attaching a bolt onto a beam
6
Workers guiding hoisting cable
7
Two workers securing a rivet
8
Two workers inspecting steel
10
Worker bolting a steel support
12
Two workers repairing machinery
13
Bringing up steel with a crane
14
View of the building rising to about sixteen stories
15
View of the building from 34th Street and Fifth Avenue
16
View of the building from another building about thirteen stories up
17
View of the building with about forty stories framed out
18
View of the building from a distance at about 34 completion
19
A forest of girders. Empire State Building
20
Workers on Empire State building
21
Workers on Empire State building
22
Worker on Empire State building, signaling the hookman
23
Icarus, high up on Empire State
24
Workers on Empire State building
25
Cranes hoisting machinery
26
Construction worker maneuvering rope and pulley
27
Construction worker standing on an I-beam pulling a rope
28
Construction workers and crane seen from below
29
Two construction workers at the corner of two steel beams pointing to the left
30
Riveters attaching a beam
31
Two workers attaching a beam with a crane
32
A worker riding on a crane hook
33
Two workers riveting a corner beam
34
A worker hanging on to two steel beams
35
A worker at the edge of a platform, looking north
36
Three workers securing a rivet
37
Crane hook and skyline looking south
39
Unloading steel from a truck
43
Workers guiding hoisting cable
44
Atop Empire State- in construction Chrysler Bldg Daily News in middle foreground.
45
Worker posing for the camera
46
Worker torch-cutting steel
