I’ve always wondered how much steel is required to hold up an entire building.
Tons, I imagine, snaking through concrete and plaster.
I watched a group of construction workers bend and weld apart long twines of rusted steel and pile them high into a massive truck, which came up to almost 2 stories high.
Interestingly enough, I discovered the core group of workers to be from Chonqing, as the demolition company was owned by a Chongqing family.
One young worker swaggered over to me, shirt wide open, and peered at my camera. I pointed to this picture of him and said, “You look like you’re building a bird’s nest.”
He responded with a blank look, and laughed, “Only a person who doesn’t do construction labor would say something like that.”
July 2010
