"topping out" traditions of the high-steel ironworkers, The

Western Folklore, Fall 2001 by Robinson, John V

"Topping out" is the term used by ironworkers to indicate that the final piece of steel is being hoisted into place on a building, bridge, or other large structure.1 The project is not completed, but it has reached its maximum height. To commemorate this first milestone the final piece of iron is usually hoisted into place with a small evergreen tree (called a Christmas tree in the trade) and an American flag attached.2 The piece is usually painted white and signed by the ironworkers and visiting dignitaries (figure 1). If the project is important enough (and the largesse of the contractor great enough) the ceremony may culminate in a celebration known as a "topping out party" in which the construction crews are treated to food and drink.

Ironworkers belong to the union called The International Association of Bridge, Structural, and Ornamental Ironworkers, which was established in 1896. Local #1 is in Chicago, the putative birthplace of the skyscraper. The work encompasses a wide variety of construction activities from the placement of reinforcing steel (called "re-bar") in concrete structures, to welding, to heavy rigging, to the more visible and extreme activities like the erection of skyscrapers and bridges. The oldest continuous aspect of the trade is practiced by ornamental ironworkers who install metal stairways, ladders, catwalks and a wide array of decorative metal structures. Ornamental ironwork predates the union and the use of structural steel by many hundreds of years. Even though steel long ago supplanted iron as a building material the men in the trade are called ironworkers-not steel workers-and they usually refer to the columns and beams as iron.

One reason the ironworkers observe the topping out custom is the simple fact that they are the first workers to reach the top of the structure. I guess the impulse to commemorate the achievement is similar to that of mountain climbers-or astronauts landing on the moon for that matter.3 Topping out the structure means the end is in sight for the "raising-gang"-the men who actually set the iron in place. There is more work to be done, and ironworkers will be involved in some aspects of it, but the heavy work is done and the raising gang is almost out of a job. While no two topping out ceremonies are the same, they usually have some combination of a tree, a flag, the ritual signing of the final beam, and a party.

The custom of decorating the uppermost point of the structure with an evergreen tree is a tradition that predates the structural-steel industry in America by hundreds of years and has old Northern European roots. Although the topping out tree has ancient roots there is no consensus among modern ironworkers as to what exactly the tree symbolizes, or when and how it came to be used by the ironworkers. According to The Ironworker, the union's official publication, "for some the evergreen tree symbolizes that the job went up without a loss of life, while for others it's a good luck charm for the future occupants"(1984:11). Other accounts attribute the tree as signifying simply that "we [ironworkers] did it" (Kodish, 1989:2).

Little scholarship has been published on this custom. Most of what has been published has appeared in newspapers, popular magazines and engineering trade journals. One can get a feel for the age and scope of such tree rituals from James Frazer who discusses tree worship extensively in The Golden Bough. (Indeed, the title of the book itself is an allusion to tree worship.) For example, in Chapter Ten, "Relics of Tree-Worship in Modern Europe," Frazer reports that it was common practice in spring or early summer for the people to go into the woods and cut branches and fasten them to every house (1922:139). Frazer further remarks, "The intention of these customs is to bring home to the village, and to each house, the blessings which the tree-spirit has in its power to bestow" (1922: 139). The evergreen tree's ability to survive the harsh Northern European winter must have made it a powerful life-affirming symbol.

Although Frazer records several ways that trees were used to bless structures, he does not record the specific use of trees to top out new buildings. The custom of fastening a the tree to the roof of a newly constructed building is no doubt an extension of the earlier tradition and was meant to ensure (either literally or symbolically) that the building received the traditional blessing before it was occupied. Furthermore, since the tree-spirit might still inhabit the lumber cut from the trees, I suspect the tree may have been placed atop the new structure to give the tree spirit somewhere to go.

The custom of topping out is still widely practiced in Europe. I have found references to the custom in France (see Surdez 1951: 27-29; "Glanes de folklore" 1952: 431-433). I have also found a reference to the custom in Spain (see Violanti 1951: 173-183). The topping out custom is most widely practiced in Germany and the Scandinavian countries. In Germany, where the custom is known as Richtfest, the ceremony consists of fastening a small fir-tree (or in some areas a wreath made from the branches of a fir-tree) to the top of the newly completed frame. Dignitaries are invited to make speeches, or recite poems for the occasion, and food and drink are served to the assembled workers and visitors. The custom is so common in Germany that it is still practiced during the construction of individual houses. Architect Fred F. Guyton once remarked to a reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "I've seen those trees in Germany on everything from skyscrapers to two-story houses and chicken coops" (McGuire 1976). In 1994 the German government produced a short video titled: What do Germans Celebrate?: The Topping-off Ceremony. There has also been one collection of Richtfest poetry published (see Kaufmann 1911). (For a further sample of the German Richtfest tradition, see Bugener 1921: 608-610; "Richtfest" 1927: 76-78.)