Construction Workers’ Lunch Break High Above Manhattan
The Great Depression produced many memorable photographs that captured the gloom, doom, misery and uncertainty of a nation amidst a severe economic downturn. Lunch Atop a Skyscraper went against that grain. On September 20th, 1932, an unknown photographer snapped a photo of one of the most dangerous, yet lighthearted, lunch breaks ever. Seated on a steel girder more than 800 feet above Manhattan, 11 ironworkers took a break from toiling on the Rockefeller Center to eat, smoke, and chat in a carefree manner, seemingly oblivious to their peril. The image appeared in the New York Herald Tribune of October 2nd, 1932, and caused a sensation. It was embraced by New York City ironworkers as a badge of their profession, and by the Big Apple as affirmation of its image as the place where the impossible was routine.
For the rest of the country, the workers, seemingly thumbing their noses at both danger and the Depression, became a symbol of American grit, resilience, and daring. As it turned out, the photo was part of a publicity stunt on behalf of the Rockefeller Center. The workers were real enough, but the event was staged as part of a promotional campaign for the massive skyscraper complex then under construction. In 2012, the New York Times asserted that there might not have even been any danger involved: a completed floor probably stood just a few feet below the girder, out of the frame. Nonetheless, regardless of authenticity, the image was a rare bright spot in the middle of dark times.
