The modern slewing tower crane, developed by firms such as Liebherr from around 1949, gave construction sites a tall, climbing jib able to lift heavy loads high and place them precisely. It made tall reinforced-concrete and steel buildings, and large prefabricated-panel housing, fast and economical to erect. The crane could climb with the structure or stand free, dominating skylines wherever cities boomed. The density of tower cranes became an informal index of an urban building cycle.
The tower crane is the indispensable machine of vertical construction, enabling the high-rise and large-panel housing that define modern dense cities.
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