50. 303 East 51st Street Crane Collapse, USA
Built: 2008
Collapsed: 2008
Est. Damages: $300,000-$1.5 million*
Located in Manhattan, 303 East 51st Street has a residential building that stretches 360 feet into the sky and has thirty-two floors. The building was still under construction in March of 2008, when a luffing-jib tower crane, which was being used to construct the skyscraper, snapped off.
303 East 51st Street Crane Collapse, USA @nydailynews / Pinterest.com
It fell and killed seven people in an incident that then-mayor Michael Bloomberg called the worst in New York City’s contemporary history. The crane’s collapse was due to negligence, and, before it happened, the NYC DOB had issued thirteen citations to the construction site for safety violations. The crane’s stabilizing collar and polyester slings were installed defectively, and that caused it to topple.