The visually arresting pictures show the staff members in a range of activities, such as enjoying a casual meal, raising their hats in celebration, and even lounging down to take a sleep. The location is on the 69th floor, 200 meters above sea level.
The mystery surrounding the photographer adds to the intrigue. Despite being first credited to Charles Clyde Ebbets, this has subsequently been questioned. The name of the photographer who captured these daring images remains unknown.
Debatable has also been the scene’s authenticity. Some people think that because the workers were courageous during the Great Depression, they risked the heights without safety precautions. The overwhelming body of evidence, however, points to the Rockefeller family staging the images as part of a marketing drive to draw tenants to the recently built complex. The laborers probably consented to participate for a fee because they had few job options during the Great Depression.
Additional ideas suggest that the images may have been digitally altered. Some experts think that to give the impression that the workers were so far up, they may have taken individual photos of them at a lower level and then overlaid those photos onto a backdrop image of the beam.
Although there is no proof to back up this notion, another theory proposes that the workers may have been professional acrobats recruited especially for the advertising shot. Whatever the techniques, these striking images capture the breathtaking scope of the Rockefeller Center project and provide a window into a bygone period of building. The workers’ seeming indifference at such a dangerous height still astounds and piques spectators.
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