Like this for example. I've seen quite a few pictures of people doing crazy things like this, and it's generally not believed that these men had any safety equipment (granted, this was a setup photo, so that's a possibility, but given the lack of a meaningful employee work-hazard insurance policy, I think the lack of equipment is more likely.
Were pictures like these considered slightly outlandish when they were first published in newspapers, or were these people still seen with the same awe that we generally look at them with today?
I'm sure this isn't going to be a satisfactory answer, but I've worked in construction and large-scale engineering enough to know that this isn't all that extreme. Especially older workers, I've seen them just nonchalantly stroll out on a beam in space, as confident as if they were on the ground.
I myself was getting a little too comfortable walking around on wooden beams narrower than my boot, six+ stories up. It's been years since I quit this line of work, and I'll still dream about it and then wake up with a start, getting dream-vertigo from something I used to do and think nothing of it.
If you're experienced enough, it just doesn't bother you. True, safety regulations have come a long way since 1932, the time of "Lunch Atop a Scyscraper,". But workers will still do this, and there's a bit of rebellious attitude about it. If the boss wants you to stop, what is he going to do? Come out there and make you?
