"Balancing 27 stories above midtown Manhattan on a recent afternoon, iron worker Kaniehtakeron ‘Geggs’ Martin straddled an I-beam on top of a rising skyscraper on 55th Street and grabbed a steal beam out of the air with a steady gloved hands.

Gently swaying the steel knocked into a support column with a deadening gong that provided the bass note to the work site’s dissonant clanging and sizzling welding.

Martin, 35, is a fourth generation Mohawk ironworker, and comes from Kahnawake, an Indian reserve outside of Montreal that has been supplying the city with ironworkers for the past century, and have worked on nearly ever skyscraper and bridge in New York City.

“It’s my job to climb the steel and erect the iron,” said Martin, who works as a connecter on the raising gang. “I put the building up, basically.”"

Get the Story:
Sky Walking: Raising Steel, A Mohawk Ironworker Keeps Tradition Alive (WNYC 3/19)