Lunch atop a Skyscraper

A 1932 photograph shows eleven construction workers eating lunch on a steel beam high above New York City during the construction of 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

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Rockefeller Center: A commercial complex in Midtown Manhattan developed by the Rockefeller family and built largely during the 1930s. The photograph was made during construction of this complex.
Construction worker: A worker who builds or repairs structures and infrastructure. The photograph’s subjects are construction workers taking a break.
Men at Lunch: A 1932 photograph shows construction workers seated on a steel beam above Manhattan. This related image is frequently confused with the better-known photograph.
Photographic authorship: The attribution of a photograph to the person who made it. Several photographers have been proposed as the image’s maker.
30 Rockefeller Plaza: A 70-story skyscraper in Rockefeller Center, completed in 1933 as the RCA Building. The workers sat on a beam during this building’s construction.
Working-class photography: Photography that documents or represents working people and their labor. The image has become a widely reproduced representation of industrial labor.
Lewis Hine: An American photographer whose documentary work recorded labor, immigration, and industrial life. His construction photographs are sometimes mistaken for the image’s source.
Photographic staging: The deliberate arrangement of people or objects for a photograph. The lunch scene may have been arranged for publicity rather than captured spontaneously.
Rockefeller Center construction: The large-scale building project that created Rockefeller Center in Manhattan during the 1930s. The photograph was made as construction workers built the complex.
American labor history: The history of workers, workplaces, labor organizations, and labor relations in the United States. The photograph is often used to evoke the people who built American cities.