Highland Falls, Orange County, New York · Hudson Valley
Highland Falls Preserve
104 photographs
Shovels, pry bars and hard hats: the whole crew in the green shade of the woods.
The old path runs past a pile of gravel toward the excavator waiting in the trees.Granite blocks wait on their pallets, stacked and ready to become steps.
A crew member digs in with a shovel below a wall of boulders.
Seen from behind, he levers a stone loose with a pry bar.Gloved hands on the bar, he pauses mid-lift and looks up.
The crew gathers under the blue canopy for the morning briefing.
A crew leader in a black helmet and red suspenders talks the plan through.The excavator's grapple holds a granite block while the operator eases it into place.
The orange excavator crawls up the new trail through the trees.
A stack of granite rides in the grapple toward the next step.The operator watches from the cab as the grapple sets a stone down.
The excavator stretches its arm over a pile of rubble and a fresh row of granite.
A single block swings in the grapple on its way down the slope.Two crew members share a laugh with the man in red suspenders.
A joke lands between the women in white helmets and their crew leader.
A crew member leans on his bar at the top of a line of new steps.Four crew members lean into their bars to shift a granite block.
Bars dug in, the crew works the stone into position on the slope.
Two women in white helmets pry together, faces set on the stone.An older crewman and a younger one lever the same block from either side.
She pries at the end of a granite slab, weight thrown into the bar.
Framed by a pry bar, a crew member bends to the work.The whole crew spreads across the slope, bars set against the stones.
A crew member squints under her white helmet, bar in hand.
Two men in hard hats share a grin between tasks.Five bars and ten hands move a granite step into line.
A pick swings into the dirt beside a white helmet.
Arms around each other's shoulders, two crew members smile for the camera.The same pair, hard hats on, hands on hips.
A pick bites into the dirt as another crew member steps past.
The mattock comes down, sneakers planted on either side.He leans on the bar and grins, a granite step at his feet.
Two crew members swing their mattocks in rhythm.
A crew member in dark glasses looks down the trail, handle in hand.He smiles over his shoulder, glasses dark under the white helmet.
A bearded crewman stands among the new steps, safety glasses on.
A drill bores a row of holes along a chalk line in the stone.Dust lifts as the drill works through the granite.
The drill bites into the rock, one hole after another.
The crew leader holds the rotary hammer at the ready.Two men set their bars on either side of a granite step.
Crew members spread across the worksite, each on a different stone.
One man taps with a hammer while his partner guides the stone.Two men bend over a long granite step, adjusting it by hand.
Bars and gloves bring the step into line.
A drill stands upright in a slab as she leans into it.Drill in both hands, she works down into the rock.
Across the slope, the crew drills and splits stone for the next steps.
In a mask and white helmet, he drills into the granite.He bends close over the drill, a generator humming beside him.
A tape measure stretches along the stone while a level waits on top.
Bent over the slab, she runs the drill down its marked line.Two crew members kneel to mark and measure a new stone.
Steel wedges stand in a row of drilled holes, waiting for the hammer.
A sledge taps each wedge in turn along the line.Tap by tap, she drives the wedges down into the stone.
A crack begins to run between the wedges.
The line of wedges and the hairline crack that follows them.The hammer comes down again, and the crack opens wide.
The slab splits clean along the drilled line.
Up close, the fresh break runs straight through the granite.The split, seen low across the stone.
The crack traced in shadow across the gray rock.
Three crew members lean on their tools and smile.The three of them, pick and mattocks in hand, standing on the slope.
The crew leader grins behind his goggles, beard and suspenders dusty from the day.
A wide smile beneath the black helmet.A level checks the face of a granite step.
He leans on the step with gloved hands to test it.
Kneeling beside a long granite step, he checks the fit.A level rests across the step as he presses it down.
Two crew members measure a step that is half set in the dirt.
She guides the rope from the winch as the stone creeps uphill.Hands on the rope and the winch, the crew hauls the step into place.
Seen from behind, she watches the rigging as the crew moves stone below.
Stone by stone, the crew works up the line of new steps.A green strap wraps a granite step ready to be hauled.
The crew rigs a strapped block to haul it up the trail.
She pries at the step while her partner digs beside it.A crew member leans on his tool, grinning under his helmet.
The same smile, the forest bright behind him.
A bar slides under the edge of a granite step.Pry bars tip a granite block onto its side.
The block stands on end as the bars guide it down.
The crew leader smiles, hearing protection on and dust in his beard.A level lies along the step as a gloved hand checks it.
Kneeling low, he taps the step into place beside the level.
Picks and mattocks lean against the rubble at the end of the day.A number chalked on a finished step marks its place in the line.
A trowel pushes gravel in beneath the step.
He sets a level on the step, gloved hand holding it steady.Two crew members fit the stones together, one kneeling on each side.
Gloves pressed to the granite, they fine-tune the fit.
The steps climb the slope as the crew stands back to look.The crew gathers for a picture below the new steps, tools in hand.
A crew member glances off down the trail, hand on his hip.
A visitor and a crew member share a grin in the shade.A skull pendant and a pair of red suspenders.
The crew works across a finished run of steps.
Bars and picks keep moving as the steps near the top.He stands at the top of the finished steps, the excavator behind him.
The crew sits together on the new granite steps at the end of the job.
