Cranespotting

June 12, 2003 5:44 PM

Cranespotting (Geocities) ... is the compulsion, upon seeing a long crane boom reaching skyward in the distance, to drive over and see what's holding it up. The crane capital of the world is Germany, where Demag, Gottwald, Krupp, Liebherr and others make some cranes with eye-opening numbers: more than 60 feet long, with 10 axles, and able to lift 1,000 tons. Now sometimes cranes tip over, touch power lines and so on; and there's a website for that too.
posted by kurumi (7 comments total)

Badass! Great sites!
posted by Bag Man at 5:56 PM on June 12, 2003

you might also enjoy cranetalk.com and it's sister site, craneaccidents.com.
posted by quonsar at 6:04 PM on June 12, 2003

hah! o crap. never even SAW that second link. :-)
carry on!
posted by quonsar at 6:05 PM on June 12, 2003

it seems like these are the only kind of cranes i see anymore, except small ones.
posted by rhyax at 9:59 PM on June 12, 2003

How Tower Cranes Grow, and other stuff. I blogged a site that had some artistic stick boom (cherry picker) photos once, but linkrot set in.
posted by dhartung at 11:59 PM on June 12, 2003

anyone else call them "city giraffes"?
posted by dabitch at 12:36 AM on June 13, 2003

A crane once collapsed onto the building where I am currently. Luckily I was outside at the time (and no one was seriously hurt) but it was damn surreal to watch.
posted by PenDevil at 12:56 AM on June 13, 2003