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:: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 ::

Clear and Present Danger - By Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post
But the lift will be dicey. Del Costello is worried about the wind. Anything over 10 mph, out of the north or south, and he's scrubbing it. Lateral stress on the derrick could be disastrous. Six years ago high wind claimed three ironworkers on a baseball stadium job in Milwaukee, and last fall wind banged a crane askew on the Potomac. 'If I [screw] up,' he says, 'I could kill somebody. I made it all these years without doing that. I ain't doing it on this one.'

Framed on the wall behind him is a kind of ironworkers creed. 'Read that,' he says. 'I wrote that.' Recited aloud, it is a blue-collar ode to skill, hard work and danger. 'Danger is my constant companion, and instant death lurks around every corner,' it says in part. 'I am an ironworker. I need not grovel . . . to king nor tycoon.'

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