Those were definitely the days when fearless meant something. Just imagine working at hundreds of feet into the air. Add to that the fact that every structural joint on that building was hot riveted. That means there had to be a furnace on the structure. Guys would heat the rivets until they were cherry red, then use special pliers to grab them and move them fast to the riveting site. That usually meant throwing the rivets. Then, the riveters, working in pairs would insert the hot rivet into the holes. One used a pneumatic hammer and the other one handled the anvil. So, you have flying red hot metal and hammering at hundreds of feet in the air without any safety rigging. At the top of it's construction speed, they were putting up almost one story every day. The steel that came from the mill on trucks was still warm when it arrived. When they put up the tip on top of it, the workers were working at an incredible 1454 feet off the ground.
Somehow, I don't think vertigo has anything to do at these heights...
