derecks at the top of the tower connected lines hoisting it up. this is the first strand of a support cable one of 25 cables that would support 2-foot bridges. one on each side from which men could assemble the foot cables. working on foot cables swaying in the wind sometimes in freezing weather, iron would reach a yard across and contain thousands of strands totalling thousands of miles in lenght. >> you had to have a couple of shots before you go up there. we had two days to think it over whether we would go back. they paid us in full every week thinking we would not go back up there. the men who built the bridge were the high wire artists. tough, drinking men who risked their lives for $25 a week. it's been said that men died for the bridge. that may be putting it too dramatically nobody willingly gave their life for the bridge. but in a job as huge and hazardous as this, there had to be injuries and deaths. one man tried to slide down the wrong cable. >> 5/8 at a cable that was greased went up. he slipped, could not hang on. killed himself. >>