Using a derrick to raise marble for a building on Trinity Place, 1906

A derrick is a non-motorized machine for raising iron and stone. Derricks are visible on every level of this 1906 building site, being used to raise the stone for building the walls. Note the workers standing to receive the stone.

The men on this job were members of the Stone Derrickmen and Riggers Union, Ironworkers Local 197, which still exists today.

See the exhibit Landscape of Lost Arts for more historic images of union members and artisans building and re-building the landscape of the city.

Ironworkers Local 197 Collection, Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, NYU