The two settings you're seeing are separated by only about three tideland blocks. In the older view, steelworkers have climbed to the tops of three of the many rebar towers being prepared for concrete during construction of the Union Depot. This landmark Puget Sound terminus for both the Union Pacific and Milwaukee Road railroads was completed in 1911.

While the last passenger train pulled away in 1971, the depot's classical masses still distinguish most of the block between Jackson and King streets, and Fifth and Fourth avenues. A stricter contemporary repeat of the historical scene would have looked directly into the depot's southeast corner. Instead, we have used Joe Crookes' photograph of a daring steelworker balanced on a girder during construction of the Seahawks stadium. (The original is in color.) This and many more of Crookes' stirring compositions are included in an exhibition of his work at the Museum of History & Industry through September. His subjects are a combination of mortal and monumental ‹ ironworkers of Seattle Local 86 hanging on the exposed skeletons of the new football stadium. In the "Artist's Statement," Crookes explains:

"What began as a process to document the construction of an enormously complicated and unique structure metamorphosed into the discovery and enchantment of the intrinsic beauty in what would seem to be an artistically hostile environment. The ironworkers ‹ cowboys riding beams and lassoing steel ‹ became heroic, larger-than-life figures." Considering the positions Crookes often got in to take his shots, this artist is also heroic.