Deconstructing Construction

I knew that in Paris one often has to bring the furniture into one's apartment through the windows to the street, since the stairs tend to be too restrictive.

I had never thought though about how one might bring in a new I-Beam.

Walking home one day recently we were stopped by a construction crew blocking the street while maneuvering the beam.  Having walked quite a way down a long block we were reluctant to turn around and retrace our steps; we weren't in a hurry, so we'd just wait.  It took a while, but it was fascinating.

The I-beam must have been 25 feet long and the window it had to come through was about 3' by 5'.

The combined efforts of a crane operator, a man at the end of a rope and two men in the window sending hand signals to the other two managed to thread that needle in about 15 minutes.

I'm really curious about what it looks like inside.