Tower cranes are true marvels of engineering that have allowed construction crews to build some of the tallest buildings in the world. Without these cranes to lift heavy loads hundreds and even thousands of feet into the air, modern city skylines would be virtually unrecognizable.
Tower cranes can be found in cities all over the globe, but have you ever wondered how these powerful construction tools are manufactured?
Thanks to this video from the long-running Discovery Channel documentary series How It’s Made, you can take an in-depth look at the process of building a tower crane from start to finish. Here, you’ll see welders assemble the enormous steel plates and tubes that form the crane’s slewing platform. You’ll also see how individual tower sections are made before they’re stacked on top of one another and secured with high-strength bolts on-site. Finally, you can watch as an elevating platform lifts a tower crane’s slewing unit so that additional tower sections can be added to increase its height.
It’s a remarkably elegant assembly process that looks strikingly similar to the Erector Sets you might have built as a child. To see this impressive undertaking for yourself, you can view the full video below!
