Patrick O'Connor

Patrick O'Connor | 52| Tower Crane Operator | Chicago

I have the best view of the city of Chicago. The funniest thing was when I was working next to the Chicago River, and I'm watching two kayakers kayaking and, all of a sudden, running into one of the pylons. They were talking to each other and not paying attention to where they're going.

You know when the Air & Water Show is coming up, so you expect the jet noise and everything else. It's a great view. How can you beat having the jets a couple hundred feet away from you?

My first tower crane was 1979. The cranes are in a lot better condition now.

You have a lot of experience on these cranes. We have a four-year apprenticeship. It takes all four years, plus some.

You have your mental wear and tear running a tower crane. Any crane. You're working blind a lot. You have to trust the people you're working with. You know you can trust the guys on the ground, but you're not too sure until you see the load yourself if it's properly hooked up.

When you're picking up the maximum load of the crane, that's when you get a little nervous. Because you're really stressing out the crane to its full capacity. Right now, if I have four lines picking up a load, I can pick up 56,000 pounds.

If it gets too windy, we have the right for safety to shut down the crane. Personally, I've seen up to 75 mile-an-hour winds, hurricane-force.

At nighttime, we release the swing brakes, and the crane will be like a big weather vane. By city law, we have to have a wind gauge up there.

The one crane accident we had in Chicago, there's no way any inspector could tell. It was just due to metal fatigue. And there's no way you can inspect for metal fatigue unless you X-ray all the bolts.

I've never had a major injury or anything. That's the main goal of an operator: Everybody leaves with 10 toes and 10 fingers. Knock on wood, I've been pretty lucky on that.