# big ol' cranes. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 30, 2003, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-ol-cranes/165203 "2003-03-30T11:43:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![King\_Friday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@King\_Friday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/King_Friday)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-ol-cranes/165203/1 "2003-03-30T11:43:50Z")
I work at an airport and they’re building an 8 level garage and they’re using those big ol’ cranes. Can somebody tell me how they move those things around and how they’re set up? I can see that the main shaft isn’t tapered so that leaves out having it colapse inside itself. My only guess is that they lift up a section, slide another section under it and so on until they have the right height. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-ol-cranes/165203/2 "2003-03-30T11:50:49Z")
The cranes are shipped in pieces and then assembled on-site (another crane lifts a section onto the top and it is bolted on), and then dissasembled when the job is done. There are also self-building cranes that work similar to how you describe, and are able to bolt sections to itself. If that makes any sense. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-ol-cranes/165203/3 "2003-03-30T11:52:43Z")
Ah, [here](http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/tower-crane18.jpg) is a picture of a self-building crane lifting a section into place, from [this page](http://science.howstuffworks.com/tower-crane4.htm) which has lots of information (and more pictures) about how cranes grow.