Laying a Beam, Empire State Building', New York, c 1931.

Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine (1874- 1940), showing members of a Derrick gang fixing a beam during the construction of the Empire State Building, and the streets of New York far below. Hine was the official photographer of the Empire State Building and his many images celebrate the enormity of the enterprise. He photographed New York for about 30 years, concentrating on three separate but related areas: the European immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, the Lower West Side and the Empire State Building.