# Bringing Down Cranes From Skyscrapers

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bringing-down-cranes-from-skyscrapers/127709>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 9, 2002, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bringing-down-cranes-from-skyscrapers/127709 "2002-09-09T21:08:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PiNPOiNT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PiNPOiNT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PiNPOiNT)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bringing-down-cranes-from-skyscrapers/127709/1 "2002-09-09T21:08:42Z")

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This may sound like a silly question, but i’ve never been given a real answer to it. I’ve always been curious to how construction companies remove those gigantic cranes from the top of a sky scraper once its finished being built. Do they somehow dismantle them and bring the pieces down in elevators? or air lift them off some how?

Thx in advance.

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bringing-down-cranes-from-skyscrapers/127709/2 "2002-09-09T21:13:13Z")

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The cranes are assmembled piece by piece when the skyscraper is constructed, and then disasembled when it’s done.

[How (self-building) Tower Cranes Work](http://www.howstuffworks.com/tower-crane.htm).

They’re pretty cool.