What goes up

Eventually we finished our work in the South Tower and the crew moved over to the Sports Book and casino remodel. I was given a new project to run, the tour bus drive-through below the parking structure. But first, this story…

Just after I had settled into the routine of work at the Sports Book, I received a call from the Harrah’s representative; the elevator installers (Otis) needed us to return to the South Tower and rebuild the elevator walls where they had been torn apart to install new doors. Harrah’s had reconfigured one elevator so that it now had a rear door in it and it was going to serve as the ‘Housekeeping’ elevator for the new hotel rooms.

OK, I knew most of the Otis mechanics and so I asked one of their foreman, Bob, when would they like us to do the work? He told me that, perhaps, I should take a ride with him the next morning and we would both get a good idea of how much work was needed. Fine; I would meet him the next day.

I met Bob at the loading dock where the service elevators were located and that was when he explained that we would take the newly remodeled elevator and go from floor to floor to assess the situation. Using the special Otis elevator key, he opened the doors and I saw the top of the elevator at my feet. We were going to ride on top of the elevator! Yikes!

Well, I couldn’t let Bob know how terrified that made me feel. Of course not. (It's a guy thing) So I joined him on top of the elevator and he picked up the remote controller, explaining that we would be moving at ‘inspection speed’, far slower than the rest of the elevators that surrounded us. Before he closed the doors, I noted that there was very little to hold onto…in fact, there was absolutely nothing I could touch! In the center of the small space where we stood, the cables from the traction motor, 25 floors above us, were located and Bob warned me, “Careful. Those cables will be moving as we move and they’re pretty greasy.” And then he closed the doors.

There was one small 60 watt bulb on the roof of the car but the light it gave off seemed to be swallowed up in the darkness of this shaft that held 5 other elevators; all of which were moving up and down at what seemed to be a great speed. You never saw them, you simply sensed that they were close and then a gust of wind would strike you as the car passed by.

Inspection speed is slow. Far too slow. It seemed to take forever to get to the second floor, where we could step off for a few tension relieving minutes while I measured and calculated the work needed. Then it was time to get back on the elevator and go to the third floor. Another eternity. Eventually, one floor at a time, I made it to the 24^th floor, where I thanked Bob very much for the tour and told him I would probably take the stairs to get back down!