By: Becky Little

Behind the Photo: Lunch Atop a Skyscraper

Uncertainty still surrounds every aspect of the 1932 image.

Lunch Atop A Skyscraper

Bettmann Archive via Getty Images

Published: July 07, 2025

Last Updated: July 07, 2025

On October 2, 1932, the New York Herald Tribune ran a striking photo of 11 ironworkers perched on a narrow steel beam, 800 feet above Manhattan’s future Rockefeller Center. Originally titled “Builders of The City Enjoy Luncheon”—and now famously known as “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper”—the photo appears to show the men casually eating lunch during construction of the Art Deco skyscraper at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, which would soon be called the RCA Building.

The truth is, the photo was anything but casual. The scene was staged as part of a publicity photo shoot to promote New York City’s real estate industry during the Great Depression. And—perhaps reassuring to anyone afraid of heights—the workers were likely in less danger than the photo suggests.

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At least three photographers were on site that day in September 1932: Charles C. Ebbets, William Leftwich and Thomas Kelley. We don’t know which of them captured the iconic image published in the New York Herald Tribune, but we do know it was one of several staged shots. In one, an ironworker holds an American flag in the air to make it look like it’s planted atop the distant Empire State Building. In another, a worker rides a block of stone as it's hoisted into the air.

There are also multiple versions of ironworkers hamming it up on that same steel beam. In one, they grin and doff their hats for the camera, clearly in on the moment. The most jaw-dropping shot shows them pretending to nap on the beam, legs dangling into the void. Thankfully, there was probably a floor or other structuremaybe some scaffolding—just out of frame. After all, they were building a skyscraper, complete with floors and ceilings.

Plenty of people have made claims—often competing ones—about who the men in the ”Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” photo actually are. But so far, Rockefeller Center archivist Christine Roussel has only been able to confirm two: Joseph Eckner, third from the left; and Joe Curtis, third from the right. With more than 40,000 people involved in building 30 Rockefeller Plaza, figuring out who is who in old construction photos is no easy task.

Over the decades, many viewers have mistaken “Lunch Atop a Skyscaper” for the work of Lewis Wickes Hine, the photographer who documented the construction of the Empire State Building. That confusion has led to the widespread but incorrect belief that the photo shows workers from that project. In truth, uncertainty still surrounds every aspect of the image—who took it, who’s in it, even exactly where it’s shot. And because it’s a publicity photo cleverly disguised as a candid moment, it remains one of those iconic images that’s often mislabeled and misunderstood. Ultimately, it’s that blend of mystery and manufactured spontaneity that keeps it so endlessly fascinating.

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About the author

Becky Little

Becky Little is a journalist based in Washington, D.C. Follow her on Bluesky.

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Citation Information

Article title
Behind the Photo: Lunch Atop a Skyscraper
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
July 07, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
July 07, 2025
Original Published Date
July 07, 2025

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