The crane that prompted me to ask the question was one that was being used on a construction site down the block from where I live, here in Manhattan. There was nothing in particular about this crane that made me think it was unsafe. It’s just that seeing it every day made me speculate if it could ever fall.
Well, today it did! Not one just like it. Not one nearby. *The very same crane! *
I was sitting in my apt when I heard the rumble outside. I looked out the window to see what made the noise, but I found nothing out of the ordinary. I went on the roof, and there was a huge cloud of dust looming in the east. Police cars and fire trucks were soon converging on the scene. I went to the street and spent most of the afternoon at the disaster site. Sadly, there were at least 4 deaths, and my favorite bar, Fubar, was totally destroyed.
We live a block away from where it landed. Pretty noisy.
The site in question was already being written up for a half-dozen safety violations. I think they may be in a shitload of trouble.
The crane base & main body detached from the hi-rise being built and landed at the new site’s foundation @ 51st St, while the long crane arm snapped against a moderately tall building (the Rite-Aid pharmacy bldg @ 2nd Ave/51 other side of 51) – wipinng out a corner of the Rite-Aid building; then the portion that snapped there arrowed down over the top and took out a short building one block over on 50th, the little Fubar bar, also removing a chunk of the building housing the Permanent Freakin’ Nails place, same building as LaMoll’s Cleaners is in. That buildlng looks damaged to the point of questionable longevity. Fubar’s just plain isn’t there any more.
One of the freakiest coincidences I experienced was the vandalism of a mosque in Charleston, WV (where my family lives) in 1999. The mosque is not far from my sister’s house. Someone had spray-painted all over the outside of the building “911” and “Bin Laden.” At the time, everyone who saw it thought “WTF?” I drove past it numerous times before the graffiti was removed many months later.
I had completely forgotten about that incident until my sister e-mailed me in October of 2001 and reminded me about it.
What the …? 9/11 was not until 2001. How did they know to do this two years before?
Cranes topple off buildings from time to time in Bangkok. Man, that has got to be one scary ride, sitting inside and knowing there’s not a damned thing you can do about it.
…and when it happened there was an active thread in GQ asking if it was really true that there needed to be a certain number of aircraft in the air at any given time because there wasn’t enough tarmac to accomodate all of them on the ground.
Maybe we should stop with these hypotheticals. Spooooooky.
I’m so glad that I’m not crazy. (yes, I know, it’s still debatable) I read the aircraft landing thread before 9-11. After the terrorist attack, I never went back to search for that thread. Ultimately, I think I assumed I had dreamed it and moved on. Whew.
I don’t think there was any “they” who knew anything. I’m just pointing out the coincidence. (I mean, even if you wanted to approach the incident with some sort of tin-foil hat logic, why would “they” choose Charleston, WV as the site to plant the big clue two years in advance of the event?)
I didn’t intend to hijack this thread into a 9/11 discussion.
stuyguy, I didn’t see your thread until I’d already heard on the news about the crane collapse. So when I saw the title, I thought it was about the crane collapse in the news. It was indeed freaky to realize your thread predated the incident.
That reminds me of a thread in 2001 from the Usernet. It was from some guy who was saying he was going away and wouldn’t be seen again, and a lot about 911. This was on August 30th or so, so when 9/1/01 came they figured that’s what he meant. But then 911 happened and people of course thought that was one of the terrorists. I think the FBI investigated it and found nothing.
That’s odd. I live only ten blocks south of that crane and whenever I would walk past it and notice it out there, I’d think, “Wow, scary crane, I hope it doesn’t fall on me.” I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who was frightened by it.
