HOW A CONSTRUCTION CRANE WORKS
Incredible engineering allows these lofty lifters to hoist hefty materials into the air with ease
WORDS AILSA HARVEY
Without construction cranes, modern urban landscapes wouldn’t exist. Cranes are one of the most essential tools in large-scale construction and have shaped the cities we know today. Before these weight-handling machines were invented, buildings were restricted by the limits of human strength. This limited the size of communities and the scale of their monuments. Relying on human power also meant that much larger groups of workers were required for each new build. On a construction site today, a small selection of highly skilled builders operate cranes and other similarly sophisticated machinery.
Did you know? The first powered crane was built in 1850