I am not a fan of skyscrapers.
When I was in Toronto in 2024, I kept my eyes fixed on the ground.
I stayed at the Sheraton and the first thing I did when I got to my room on the 28th floor was close my curtains.
I did my best to ignore the feeling that the entire structure was swaying with me inside.
The idea of being in any building taller than ten storeys fills me with dread.
So no, you will never catch me doing the CN Tower’s EdgeWalk.
Also… there is no way I could be in one under construction.
The wind blowing through open walls.
Birds flying around me.
The sound of beams and girders creaking as they settle into their new home.
I’m freaking out just thinking about it.
But some aren’t bothered by heights.
They live for the thrill of walking on steel beams far above the sidewalks.
And their boot prints are found on the most famous structures on the continent.
The Golden Gate Bridge.
The CN Tower.
And almost the entire skyline in Manhattan which they helped to build.
I’m Craig Baird, this is Canadian History Ehx and today I am doing my best not to look down as I share the story of steel and construction workers who have shaped our cities.
These are The Mohawk Skywalkers!
Centuries before Europeans landed on what became Canadian shores, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy was one of the most powerful Indigenous alliances in North America.
According to oral history, the Confederacy was established after a solar eclipse on Aug. 31, 1142, CE and was one born out of warfare between the five nations part of it.
For generations, the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca and Onondaga fought constantly around the Great Lakes region.
Untold hundreds, even thousands, were killed.
It couldn’t go on forever.
One day, a man calling himself Hiawatha told the nation there was another way.
He travelled through the region and gathered the leaders and told them that if they did not stop warring, the only thing they would achieve would be the death of their people.
Hiawatha instructed them in The Great Law, given to him by The Great Peacemaker.
He said that if the Five Nations united, they would be far stronger than they could ever be alone.
He succeeded, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy was born.
By the time the French arrived in the 17th century to settle in the St. Lawrence area, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy was a superpower.
The French became a hated enemy.
From 1609 until nearly the end of the century the two fought against each other in the Beaver Wars.
During that time, some of the Haudenosaunee converted to Christianity.
By the 1660s, French Jesuit missionaries relocated converts to New France and by 1680, 163 square kilometres was granted by the French Crown to the Mohawk near Montreal.
This was the beginning of the Kahnawake Reserve.
For the next two hundred years the reserve grew in population but decreased in territory size.
Whenever European settlers needed land, they carved it from the reserve without consultation.
Today, it’s a quarter of its original size.
And as the Mohawk saw their land being taken from them, they looked for ways to prosper in a changing world.
It was the late-19th century, and railroads were being constructed across Quebec.
This meant a steel bridges were popping up yearly to facilitate train travel across rivers.
Older bridges were renovated to handle the weight of modern locomotives, including the famous Victoria Bridge in Montreal.
First opened in 1859, the bridge was once the longest in the world at three kilometres.
By the 1890s increased traffic required the single-track metal tube to be replaced with metal trusses and two new tracks.
Kahnawake Mohawk delivered stone from a quarry at their reserve to the construction site and some became intrigued by the steel construction.
Wanting to learn more about it, they effortlessly climbed up the bridge’s steel girders to get a closer look.
Supervisors were immediately impressed by their lack of fear and hired them on the spot One supervisor said,
“They were as agile as goats, immune to the noise of riveting which usually makes newcomers to construction sick and dizzy.”
It was the birth of the Mohawk Steelworkers.
Conway Jocks, a Mohawk Skywalker said,
“We had a reputation as rivermen, and ironworking was a different kind of work. We didn’t have the tools or traditional skills to fall back on. It was our introduction to the industrial age.”
As fathers worked on bridges, sons emulated them.
By 12 years old they were assisting their fathers and then taught their own sons.
Soon there were generation of Mohawk ironworkers throughout Quebec.
They were the best at what they did and could come and go as they pleased.
This was a marked difference from any other Indigenous person in the land, because at the time their movements were controlled by Indian Agents who decided who could or could not leave a reserve.
Meanwhile for decades Mohawk Steelworkers helped build bridges across the continent.
And their next project would bring about very dark days ahead.
At the time the only way to travel from the south shore of the St. Lawrence in Lévis to the north shore at Quebec City was to take a ferry or to use a wintertime ice bridge.
Construction of a bridge over the St. Lawrence River was considered as early as 1852 but kept being pushed.
It went on and on this way for years until 1903, when the federal government issued a $6 million bond.
With that the newly-named Quebec Bridge and Railway Company got to work.
At the time, about 70 Mohawk worked as ironworkers in Quebec.
Half were hired to work on the new bridge.
With them on board, progress was quick, little did they know that those above their pay grade were cutting corners.
By 1904, the southern portion of the bridge was starting to take shape and although preliminary calculations had been made in the planning stage they were never checked when the design was complete.
The Mohawk steelworkers had no idea that the weight of the bridge far exceeded its carrying capacity.
Disaster was looming.
It would arrive on Aug. 29, 1907.
At around 4 p.m. Alexander Beauvais, a leader of a Kahnawake riveting gang, reported that two rivets had broken off near a splice and ribs were bending.
The boss told him it was nothing serious.
Beauvais walked back onto the bridge, just as the south arm and central section of the bridge disappeared into the St. Lawrence.
He held onto one of the bridge’s chords, but 75 other men vanished in 15 seconds.
Beauvais suffered a broken foot and broken nose. He was one of the lucky ones.
33 Mohawk workers lost their lives.
One family lost four brothers, an uncle, a brother-in-law and a cousin.
The disaster left 25 widows and 53 children without fathers.
The youngest Mohawk victim was 18, the oldest, was 44.
His name was So Se O Ri, and he left behind 11 children with a 12th one on the way.
The Quebec Bridge collapse killed three times the number of Kahnawake men that died in the First and Second World Wars, and the Korean War.
The Toronto Star wrote of the victims’ families,
“Their quiet intense grief was most touching and brought tears to the eyes of onlookers even more than if it had been voiced. The poor things simply sat quiet in the office hardly uttering a word, but the mere look of their faces was enough to cause strong ones to lower their voices to whispers.”
Only eight Mohawk bodies were recovered, and the Mohawk of the Kahnawake call that dark day Shontoskwenne (soon-doe-Skwonn-nay), …. “When the bridge fell”.
The Mohawk Skywalkers rebounded from the tragedy, but before they returned to work, they promised to never work in family groups to safeguard the women and the reserve from future disaster.
As the years went on, generational skills continued to be passed down until they helped to shape the skylines of some of the most important cities in North America.
By the early-1920s, New York City had surpassed London as the biggest city in the world with a population approaching 10 million.
Space on Manhattan Island was at a premium, so the only option was up.
On Sept. 19, 1928, builders broke ground on what would become one of the most famous in the world.
The Chrysler Building.
It would shape the New York City skyline and become an iconic skyscraper.
To achieve this manpower with nerves of steel were needed.
At the time, buildings were built by the hands of four men in riveting gangs.
All skyscrapers first started with a frame made up of steel columns, beams and girders.
A riveting gang would fasten them together.
First, a heater would fire or heat up the rivets in a small forge.
Then he would toss them to the sticker-in, who caught them with a glove or metal can and placed them in a hole in either the girder or beam.
Then the bucker-up braced the rivet using a dolly bar, while the riveter used a pneumatic hammer to mushroom the rivet stem and secure the locking steel.
They did this without safety equipment, hundreds of meters in the air.
Only their respect for the danger kept them from making unfortunate mistakes.
And when you’re performing a red-hot rivets ballet far above the sidewalk, you want the best people on the job.
Enter… the Mohawk Skywalkers.
By the 1920s, their skillset had become legendary and had spread outside of Quebec to New York City.
The first Mohawk worker arrived in 1916 to build the Hell Gate Bridge.
Since then, nearly every major construction project in New York City would have men from Kahnawake on their payroll. As The Great Depression began, jobs were at a premium, so Mohawk workers were more than happy to take on new and more challenging projects in the world’s largest city.
These workers built the Chrysler Building, floor by floor, taking turns on the various positions of the riveting gang.
They balanced on narrow beams as birds flew around them with no safety lines, or helmets.
It was dangerous and hard work, but they enjoyed it, and they were proud to be part of something historic.
In August 1930, the Chrysler Building was complete and became the world’s tallest building as it reshaped the city’s skyline.
The beautiful building didn’t hold the title for long though.
Less than a mile away, another group of Mohawk Skywalkers were working on a skyscraper that would soon overshadow it.
The Empire State Building.
In the years before breaking ground on the Empire State Building in 1930 D Mohawk Ironworkers made the long drive to New York City every Sunday night and returned home on Fridays to spend the weekends with their families in Canada.
They were in the unique situation of being allowed to work in the United States without needing proper work documentation.
All thanks to a treaty signed a hundred and fifty years earlier.
The Jay Treaty of 1794 was signed between the United States and Britain to solve many of the left-over issues from the Treaty of Paris signed nine years earlier to end the American Revolutionary War.
Article III of the Jay Treaty allowed for free passage of the First Nations across the border without restriction.
In 1925, Mohawk Ironworker Paul Diablo was arrested in Philadelphia for illegal immigration.
He had crossed the border without proper documentation to work.
Two years later, in a landmark decision, a judge threw out the charge in the case and ruled that Mohawk were legally allowed to cross the border because it went through their traditional territory.
This decision allowed more Mohawk to travel to the United States to become ironworkers.
And so, every Sunday they traveled to New York City and lived in a small Brooklyn neighbourhood called North Gawanus.
As the neighbourhood’s Mohawk population increased, it became known as Downtown Kahnawake and catered to new arrivals by ensuring Canadian products were in stock at the various stores.
One business had a sign over the door that said,
“The Greatest Iron Workers in the World Pass Thru These Doors.”
As new Mohawk arrived in the city to work, elders taught them the tricks of the trade to do their job well, but more importantly safely.
Soon, every skyscraper in the city had at least one Mohawk crew on it.
Including the Empire State Building.
Construction began on March 17, 1930, and things progressed quickly, over 10,000 tons of steel erected per month.
The last piece of steel on the Empire State Building was placed at the top by a Mohawk worker on Sept. 15, 1930.
If you’re not good with quick math, that means the whole building was completed in only 25 weeks.
It would however take almost a year before the building opened to the public on May 1, 1931, and officially became the tallest skyscraper in the world.
It held that record for the next 40 years, until it was surpassed by another building that also had Mohawk Skywalkers among its crews.
Before I tell you about the building let’s talk about a stereotype that plagued the Mohawk Ironworkers.
It was believed that they had no fear of heights and that’s why they could easily work in the air without a problem.
But that’s not true Kyle Beauvais, a Mohawk worker said,
“We have as much fear as the next guy. The difference is that we deal with it better.”
As buildings crept up higher and higher, Mohawk Steelworkers continued to outshine those around them while dealing with that fear of heights.
That’s because the job became generational.
On construction sites mentors were often their fathers.
Turhan Clause Jr. said “My father once told me, ‘Son, I don’t have a lot of money or a house to leave you when I pass on. The only thing I can do is show you an honest way to make a living.’ So, he took me to my first job as an ironworker. It was exciting and a little scary at the time. And I still haven’t found anything better.”
And despite their incredible skills they were paid lower wages than their white colleagues and were restricted from entering many labour unions.
Despite the racism they experienced, the number of Mohawk increased and the 1950s, there were 700 Mohawk families living in Brooklyn.
While the men worked on skyscrapers, their wives helped build Little Kahnawake into a thriving community.
They operated boarding houses for new arrivals from Quebec and also worked in nearby factories.
. They turned this tiny Mohawk enclave into a thriving neighborhood.
By the 1960s, the sons of the men who worked on the Empire State Building had heard of their father’s hands in creating the world tallest building.
But two new buildings had been announced that would cast a shadow on the Empire State Building which is 102 floors and stands 1250 feet high.
The North Tower would be 110 floors and stand 1378 feet in the air with an antenna that topped the building adding 264 feet.
The South Tower would be 110 floors and 1368 feet tall.
They would be called The World Trade Center and Mohawk workers in New York City would help build them.
Their expertise once again helped complete the building that would become the tallest in the world at a brisk pace.
From 1968 to 1972, Joe Norton, was one of the many on the crew.
He worked from the 80th to the 101st floors and only stopped because that far up in the sky the wind was simply too cold.
At times, Mohawk Skywalkers stood on steel girders hundreds of metres in the air and looked towards the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings and thought about how they were shaping the skyline like their fathers and uncles had done.
25 years later, when the World Trade Centre Towers were destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, their sons and nephews returned to New York City to help rescue survivors and remove the wreckage that became Ground Zero.
Today, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum has an exhibit on the Mohawk Skywalkers titled “Skywalkers: A Portrait of Mohawk Ironworkers at the World Trade Center.”
After the World Trade Center and the iconic Twin Towers were completed and opened to the public on April 4, 1973, Mohawk workers began to form their own construction companies.
They took on various jobs across the continent, but technology was making the riveting gangs obsolete.
Many of the Mohawk workers left their Brooklyn neighbourhood during the late-70s and through the 1980s.
Slowly, the number of Mohawk Skywalkers dwindled.
But they aren’t gone.
During the mid-part of the 20th century15 percent of the iron workers in New York City were Mohawk; today they make up 10 percent of those crews.
Many still make the seven-hour journey from their homes in Canada to work and now the Kahnawake men are joined by women as they scale North America’s tallest structures.
When ground broke One World Trade Center in April 2006 Mohawk Skywalkers were there.
Over 200 Mohawk, many of whom dismantled the wreckage of the towers, were on site to build One World Trade Center.
One World Trade Center was rebuilt at the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, and is the tallest building in the United States, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and the seventh-tallest in the world.
Peter Jacobs’ father and grandfather both built skyscrapers in New York City and he was a connector on One World Trade Center.
He said in 2011,
“I can tell my grandkids that I helped build this. It would be the highlight of my 30-year-career as an ironworker. Knowing the height of the building, and what it means to the people who lost their loved ones, it is like a victory for us and the people.”
John McGowan’s great-grandfather, grandfather and father all worked as ironworkers.
His father and grandfather both worked on the original World Trade Centre.
When the towers collapsed, he was there to help with the cleanup.
Then he started working on One World Trade Center.
When it was capped off in 2013, Joe McGowan was there to help mark the momentous occasion.
Throughout this episode, I have spent a lot of time talking about New York City which is unusual for me, but I did it because Mohawk workers built many of the most famous structures in North America and the New York City reigned skyscraper supreme from the 1920s to the 70s.
There are plenty more across the continent as developers tried to outdo each other, building higher and higher.
Mohawk workers made them all possible.
When the Sears Tower became the world’s tallest building in 1973, men from the Kahnawake reserve were there.
They were there in San Francisco for the Golden Gate Bridge, the Telus Tower in Montreal and Hotel Vancouver.
Even the United Nations Building has Mohawk Ironworkers fingerprints on it.
They were also on hand 1973 to 1975, building possibly the most famous structure in Canadian history.
The CN Tower.
If there’s a construction project in North America, you can bet there are Mohawk steelworkers on job.
The next time you see the skyline of New York City, look at a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge, or drive over one of Quebec’s many bridges, think about the many Mohawks who helped bring those construction projects to fruition.
Because the work continues to be dangerous… and it does claim lives.
Kenneth McComber was an ironworker.
His grandfather and great-grandfather had also been one.
He started in the family trade when he was 17 and quickly moved up the ranks over the next four years.
In the spring of 2001, he returned to Canada after working on a 41-storey building in Times Square.
On June 27 he was working on a crane on the Champlain Bridge in Montreal.
He had finished his shift but was called back and so he was on a construction platform when it collapsed at around 3:30 a.m.
Two workers plunged 30 metres into the St. Lawrence River.
The men had been standing on a wooden platform on the deck of the bridge when a 20-tonne crane toppled.
It fell off the bridge, taking the platform and the men with it into the river.
One of the workers was rescued.
Kenneth McComber was not.
He was found three days later.
McComber was buried with four feathers, a turtle pin and a flag alongside other fellow ironworkers next to Longhouse 207 in Kahnawake.
The river had claimed another Kahnawake ironworker, just like it did on that dark day in 1903.
