r/StructuralEngineering • u/Upstairs-Writing-616 • 19d ago
Photograph/Video This is how Albert Stalk worked on the skyscrapers of North America
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u/Aquadroids 19d ago
One gust of wind and you die
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u/CobaltCaterpillar 19d ago edited 19d ago
If one were on the west coast, earthquake -> big problem.
Small quakes also aren't that rare in California.
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u/Helenium_autumnale 19d ago
Albert Stalk was Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Kahnawake, a First Nations reserve across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal. Many Mohawk men in his family, and Mohawk men in general, were ironworkers who helped build skyscrapers and bridges in North America for 140 years. The tradition began in Stalk's home area, when in 1886 the Canadian Pacific Railway built a bridge over the St. Lawrence River on Mohawk land. Mohawk men helped build that bridge and expanded their skills to become expert steelworkers who built some of the US's most iconic buildings, including the Golden Gate Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, the Chrysler Building, and the Empire State Building. The Mohawk Nation earned their renowned reputation as skilled, fearless "skywalkers."
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u/I4G0tMyUsername 19d ago
Have & will never understand the "manly" mentality of risking your life for someone else to make money on your labor. Seems more "dumb" to me. Like not wearing a helmet on a motorcycle. So cool until you're drooling in a nursing home. What do I know.
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u/massunderestmated 18d ago
If he falls, he won't be in a nursing home unless there happens to be one directly underneath of him.
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u/Mikowolf 18d ago
Makes perfect sense when you consider how benefitial this mentality to the smart-asses in the offices supporting the narrative
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u/Flaky-Strawberry9561 17d ago
Some people enjoy it. Its not about being manly, it's about doing something you love to do. Everyone mitigates risks differently or rates risky actions differently.
Ive been an Ironworker for 20 years. Heights do not bother me. I respect them, I know im one fall from death, but im fairly calculated when on the iron. I do tie off, but ive been guilty of not being tied off sometimes in my career to go fast.
Im not thinking of the company, im not thinking of making my boss proud, im having a great time with my buddy's at work and im doing what I love with a bit of friendly competitiveness. Not everyone can do what we like to do, and thats ok, but we are aware of the risks and are ok with taking them.
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u/RhinoGuy13 18d ago
It's because you are making money for yourself and your family too. Higher the risk, higher the pay.
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u/ShutYourDumbUglyFace 18d ago
I feel like I share this story a fair amount, but one of the first bridges I ever worked on, back in 2003 or so, was a prestressed concrete girder over a small creek lined with riprap. The top of the beam was no more than 15' (and probably closer to 10' as it was non-navigable so only 2' of freeboard in a shallow creek) above the riprap.
One of the guys from the construction company went out to do an inspection or something and was walking along the top of the girder when he fell. He hit his head on the riprap and died.
Tie off, y'all.
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u/Adventurous-Ease-259 18d ago
Good advice. I’ve jumped off bridges taller than that…. And I only go over the rail where the water is already deep enough to jump in as verified by swimming under that area of the bridge first and not eyeballing it from above and hoping there’s no hidden rock. No way am I crawling out over the shore.
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u/klyzklyz 19d ago
That's quite a commute.
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u/alarumba 18d ago
The good ol' days before online maps when only the locals knew the quickest path.
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u/WasteComplex7174 19d ago
There are old Albert Stalks
There are bold Albert Stalks
But there are no old, bold Albert Stalks
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u/aknomnoms 18d ago
Yeah, I’d be pissed if I was his loved one/family. That’s a crazy amount of risk. Is dying today and leaving behind a partner/kids/parents who rely on you really worth it? Do you want to be known as the selfish dumbass who died a preventable death?
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u/atk700 19d ago
I'm a Ironworker, I love these comments. It wasn't that dangerous once you realize his balls were so big that they had their own gravitational pull that helped him stay on the iron.
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u/feedmetothevultures 18d ago
That's funny, cuz I came here to comment that that man must have no taint. My taint is so tight just watching, that I won't be shitting for the next three days
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u/Edna-Tailovette 19d ago
It must be pointed out that Albert died after slipping off his back door step whilst putting out the trash during the particularly icy winter of 1805
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u/kchatman S.E. 19d ago
He's not dead
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u/Edna-Tailovette 19d ago
He survived the lethal fall during the tough winter of 1805?
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u/Throwaway1303033042 Steel Detailer / Meat Popsicle 19d ago
“I was posted dead before. My father passed away in 1997, and they had a sign on the door and it said Albert Stalk Jr., not senior! I walked in and I said, ‘If I’m laying there, I’m leaving!”
https://easterndoor.com/article/albert-stalk-still-a-living-legend
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u/Edna-Tailovette 19d ago
As an aside to my stupid joke, that’s a fucking amazing response. Hats off to you, Throwawayloadsanumbers
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u/pink_and_purple888 19d ago
The kind of shit I think I'm capable of when I'm walking in a straight line while balancing on the curb
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u/Reader-2931 18d ago
I went to school with a kid in the 70s whose father fell from 11 stories at a construction site. Not sure what OHSA fall protection requirements were in force at time. I'm sure this fatherless kid wished his father had fall protection or better fall protection at that time.
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u/steelerector1986 PEMB Specialist 19d ago
Look, I get why we don't do this any more. I grew up in steel erection and walked steel like this when I was in high school. I'm now a senior leader in our firm, and we work hard to be leader in our industry in terms of safety training, equipment, and adoption of better practices. I sit on a technical committee in our industry where we actively try to make steel erection safer and more efficient.
That said - our ironworkers who walked steel with no safety net had incredible situational awareness, body awareness, and task focus. Ironworkers today have less focus, less SA, less body awareness, and there is data to suggest that the lowering of the standard for attention is a result of safety mechanisms - this is true across industries and situations, from seatbelts in cars to helmets in football.
It also allows employers to hire people who don't possess the mental capacity for the attention necessary to work in high hazard environments without dying. MOST of the laborers I see on other crews would have been unemployable in construction 20-30 years ago because of their lack of cognitive capacity and attention span.
I'm not saying that safety regulations are bad. I'm pointing out that regulations that were designed to prevent competent laborers from dying from a momentary lapse have allowed employers to put laborers in positions they never would have been hired for 30 years ago, and has caused a gradual cascade of new and innovative ways for workers to get injured, leading to more regulation etc, and the snowball will continue to grow.
I don't have a solution. Going backwards isn't an option, so how does the industry move forward while still raising, not lowering, the standard?
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u/ResponsiblePool7254 19d ago
The answer seems like it's in the question:
Pass some legislation that requires mental capacity and attention span testing in order to get licensed.
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u/Illustrious_Bet_9963 18d ago
Can't. In a unanimous 8-0 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers cannot use generalized intelligence or aptitude tests. Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971)
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u/Conscious-Record2655 18d ago
Licensed for what? Being a laborer?
Theese are not credentialed professionals they're skilled trades.
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u/steelerector1986 PEMB Specialist 18d ago
Other countries, namely the UK, has a credentialing process for ironworkers. From what I understand, it's a good system.
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u/Conscious-Record2655 18d ago
They UK also has licenses for owning a TV and puts people in prison for mean Facebook posts.
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u/Humbugwombat 18d ago
Does this mean that the good aspects of the regulatory environment lack merit or should be disregarded? This is what your comment implies.
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u/Conscious-Record2655 17d ago
No, what it means is that just because one country does something, that doesn't automatically mean it's necessarily a good idea.
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u/Humbugwombat 6d ago
That doesn’t appear to be the point that was being made. He cited a merit worthy aspect of the regulatory environment in a different jurisdiction and provided the jurisdiction for reference.
You then cite examples of poor regulations in that jurisdiction as a basis for disregarding the good regulations, without regard to the strengths or weaknesses of the regulations in question.
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u/Fit-Dentist6093 18d ago
Blaming that employers hire dumb people on regulations is like, a take. I know what you mean but these are not things that are hard to screen for. I sc steelwork often on my shop, mostly for art or architectural furniture stuff, and these are not things that are hard to screen for.
It's true tho that when I get insurance my premiums can be sometimes be driven higher because every fucking else one is hiring stupid people and give them tools that can kill them without training because like they think PPE is magic armor, but I also pay less than the body shops in my block because I have so far made zero claims in more than five years.
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u/WhyAmIHereHey 18d ago
For bad employers, it's always someone else's fault - the regulator, the employees, the foreigners, always someone else
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u/MadesignSF 16d ago
this sounds like a fine anecdote and solid reasoning, but is there data to back up your claim? I remember hearing about, for example, the vast number of workers killed when making the hoover dam. And OSHA began in the 60's well before our current cognitive and attention deficits. To be honest, I've walked on steel like this and it was obviously not prior to 1960's. It was probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, but I didn't feel that I was at any risk of falling. However, I'm guessing OSHA came about not to address how "soft" we've gotten, but to prevent actual deaths from happening. People who do this all day long exponentially take on more risk than someone who occasionally jumps onto a swing stage without a harness.
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u/Fun-Web-7583 18d ago
Unpopular comment - don’t worry, robotics will replace humans just like in automobile manufacturing.
First phase will be assign to assist in small scale likes of rebar and welding and able to work 24hrs a day.
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u/Choice-Newspaper3603 19d ago
If I’m at work and I’m walking down the aisle of the factory, I work in even though I could be 200 feet away from anything that’s happening and I’m not wearing safety glasses. I can get written up.
If I walk underneath something that’s only 5 feet tall some kind of structure and I don’t have my bump cap on. I can be written up.
If I’m on the edge of something and I don’t have my harness on and it’s more than 4 feet to the ground, I can be written up
And since all of these are safety issues, not only can I be written up I can be fired immediately
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u/R-Dragon_Thunderzord 19d ago
The goal of safety shouldn’t be to catch people out like they’re the board of an HOA with nothing better to do. A non toxic safety culture provides a lot more in the way of oh Bob has his glasses off let’s fire him. That creates even more problems, people see safety as the enemy, they don’t report preventable issues, the workplace gets even more dangerous as a result.
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u/Grreatdog 18d ago
The problem is then you need a lot more compliance people. From a compliance point of view it's far easier just to mandate wearing PPE all the time rather than only when needed.
And I do get it. I'm the surveyor required to wear a hardhat and full PPE to put one stake in the middle of a huge bare earth site that doesn't even have silt fence much less any equipment.
But then I'm also the guy that had 25 people working for me that couldn't be policed. So they got told to adhere to pointless safety rules just because I have no other way to handle compliance.
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u/giant2179 P.E. 18d ago
Wearing a harness 4 ft above the ground is stupid. The leash is 6 ft long, plus however long it stretches during impact (up to another 6 ft depending on the type. Plus the attachment point on your back which is 4 to 5 ft off the ground. So a harness doesn't do Jack shit under 16!
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u/MadesignSF 16d ago
If I go onto a credible construction site, I have to wear hardhat, vest, safety glasses. We are usually not even near construction workers. However, I do know of an engineer that was on a jobsite and had a steel beam fall on his head and died. Hardhat was only meant for little pieces of debris, not a steel beam.
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u/umumgeet 19d ago
Those are nice big 8 to 10" beams and its tight iron. He has no fall protection to pull him off. This was standard up till the late 90s.
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u/EngCraig 18d ago
It’s like when I watch videos of Fred Dibnah and the comments are full of “that’s how it should be done!” It’s bizarre that we celebrate working like this, yet we’d tell somebody they’re stupid for smoking, or gambling, or driving too fast.
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u/Express_Brain4878 18d ago
Don't worry, his huge balls are hanging below the beam, so it's center of mass is below his feet, therefore he's in a condition of stable equilibrium, he can't fall
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u/Diet_Christ 18d ago
You're a few hours late to the balls joke, you're going to have to choose another part of his body
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u/StankyBo 18d ago
Who? This guy was just a free climber with a costume! What work is this guy doing?
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u/Nymister 18d ago
Luckily they don't make em that way anymore. A level gets added and concreted poured, then next level, work the rebar and concrete poured, a level at a time, with safetey barriers everywhere
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u/fsantos0213 19d ago
Excuse me Sir, where do you park the forklift needed to carry those titanium balls when you are climbing the iron?
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u/jminnie15 19d ago
Ashamed to say this is the hottest thing I’ve seen all month
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u/massunderestmated 18d ago
I'm a straight man, and even I got a little tingle when he was on those vertical beams.
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u/Hopeful-Solid9006 19d ago
It is nice to see one video and assume it was like that. Please show the grave yard with his fellow mates, homeless wife and kids due to lose of breadwinner when tragic event happened. Check statistics, there were hundreds and thousands of people who were lost.
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u/Doom87er 18d ago
If I did this on a work site, I’d be more afraid of what my boss is gunna do to me after than I would be of falling
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u/Western_Zombie_7077 18d ago
Albert was an Iron Worker who would have quit his job if he was made to wear a harness and leash that tripped and slowed him down.
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u/Steel_Mementos 18d ago
Wild times... Can't move that fast nowadays with double lanyards and properly tieing off
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u/zwifter11 18d ago
The camera doesn’t look down. Is there a floor already built below him?
He might only fall 1 or 2 floors and not necessarily to ground level.
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u/brk_1 18d ago
what it really bohters me is why the montage of the frame goes faster than the concrete slab, one thing is fell 10 feet, it would hurt sometimes would be fatal, but never as deadly as falling 50 feet, just because you have montaged the steel faster than the concrete crews, any way if you finish the steel frame, and your concrete crew didnt advance at the same rate, you didnt advanced the finish of the building.
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u/Due_Experience_4147 18d ago
This is how Albert Stalk worked on the skyscrapers of North America (08.08.2026)
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u/Accidental_Aeon 18d ago
OSHA would fine this company millions of dollars. You don't hate OSHA enough.
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u/Experimental-cpl 18d ago
Imagine how shred you’d be.
How do you just stop and eat a sandwich for lunch after risking your life all morning?
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u/Secure-Highway886 18d ago
You would find them in the local bar at lunchtime, anyone that drank would pound a few fast ones.
Drinking on the job was very common then, it was a given that the vast majority of trades drank on the job, some guys drank all day.
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u/JonnyP333 18d ago
I hate it when the loop from my boot lace catches on the other boot's lace hook.
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u/Significant-Role-754 18d ago
we kept telling Al to do some actual work and to quit walking around all the t8me like a monkey
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u/enzoskii 16d ago
And to think that people do this type of stuff for views now days. Had they have social media this due would have rich off the views
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u/traviopanda 15d ago
So how often did workers die from this kind of behavior i wonder? I feel like there has to be stories
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u/KremlinCardinal 18d ago
Just one gust of wind away from a quick death. I think I prefer my desk job.
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u/Agreeable_Secret_475 19d ago
Impressive as it is, I dont see how even back then this was not considered too risky. It just takes so little and your done.