Lunch atop a Skyscraper - Garden Place Hotel, Williamsville, NY - Exact Replicas on Waymarking.com

Lunch atop a Skyscraper (New York Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam) is a famous black and white photograph taken by Charles C. Ebbets during construction of the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center.

The photograph depicts eleven men eating lunch, seated on a girder with their feet dangling hundreds of feet above the New York City streets. Ebbets took the photo on September 29, 1932 on the 69th floor of the RCA Building during the last months of construction, and it appeared in the New York Herald Tribune on October 2 in its Sunday photo supplement.

Death-defying photographer, Charles Ebbets (1905-1978) was as fearless as the vertigo-resistant construction workers he photographed. Casually dangling on the I-beams of New York skyscrapers, the workers were immortalized in a series of nearly 300 dizzying shots published in the New York Herald Tribune. His photography epitomized the American spirit of risk-taking bravery and ingenuity that was behind building New York into a world-class city.

Garden Place Hotel owner, Russell Salvatore originally found a miniature-sized statue of the workmen while vacationing in Fort Lauderdale. He put it on display in the hotel lobby and received many admiring comments about it. One day in October 2003, a hotel guest from New York City told him about a life-sized version of this statue that traveled around Manhattan on a flatbed truck. The next day Russ hopped a plane to New York and wandered around the city until he found his eleven men.

An Italian sculptor named Sergio Furnari owned the mobile tourist attraction, which he created himself. Sergio made his living driving it around New York and selling souvenir versions of the statue to people. When Russ first approached Sergio about purchasing the statue, he refused, because without the statue Sergio would be out of a job. A $50,000 check written on the streets of Manhattan changed Sergio's mind. He drove the statue on his flatbed all the way from New York to Williamsville and delivered it to the parking lot of the Garden Place Hotel.

Once the ten-ton crane positioned the sculpture, Russ then hired local artist Tim Martin to create a mural of New York City below the men. The hand-painted billboard makes the statue look authentic, as if they are truly eating lunch 38 stories up in the sky. Russ's intention from the beginning was to create a tribute to America, something important to him after September 11. He receives at least a dozen comments per day regarding the sculpture and its story. He believes it has been such a big hit because many people are familiar with the original picture, but he had no idea the impact would be so dramatic.

Although the original photograph depicted the workers on their lunch break on the 69th floor, this representation lists them as being on the 38th floor.

Where is original located?: New York Herald Tribune Where is this replica located?: Williamsville, NY Who created the original?: Charles C. Ebbets Year Original was Created (approx. ok): September 29, 1932 Internet Link about Original: Not listed

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