Interesting Photo of the Day: Climbing to the Top of the Empire State Building

Interesting Photos

In 2000, Vincent Laforet climbed to the top of the Empire State Building to shoot some maintenance workers fixing the iconic skyscraper’s antenna. When he reached the three-foot-wide crow’s nest at the peak, he turned around, lay down on his stomach, hooked his shoes into the gap near the needle because he wasn’t wearing a harness, held his breath and captured this image:   

And to think: the photographer wasn’t even wearing a harness. (Via Imgur. Click for larger image.)

As if vertigo alone doesn’t set in by just looking at the shot, judging by Laforet’s description on his blog years later, the conditions were no walk through Central Park, either:

“When people hear this story… they call me crazy. The real scary part about the walk up was that there were 14 million watts of radio/TV waves coming from the top of the Empire State Building—you’re not supposed to stand up too long, or you may never have kids… My pager was going off non-stop… And then it was windy—and I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that the tower sways when it’s windy… just to add to the fun.”