Apprentices on Learning

Empire State Building restoration crew members (third-year apprentice Wanda Castro, second-year apprentice Carlos Luis Gonzalez, and mechanic Jorge Jones) take a break to chew the fat with Host Will Durst on a work stage hanging off the side of the building nearly one-quarter of a mile up!

Do you guys feel like youčre part of a tradition?

Wanda: We must, we're working on a very important building in New York City. We must feel like we are part of the tradition because it was done once before and now we're restoring it?

Carlos: There's definitely a connection with the people who built this building and us. Sometimes, we'll go into doing demolition, taking out a stone, taking out bricks and we'll see a newspaper from whenever it was built, you know, for the year [1930] it was built, or you might see a coffee cup that might have the address to a restaurant that doesn't even exist or some deli from way back. That's when sometimes you take it for granted, sometimes working on the building. But when you find those things you feel that connection. You think, "Hey wait a minute, I am at the Empire State Building, a landmark building!" And there's a pride to it. Without a doubt.

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