Comments (0) Best View From Work - 2002
Light-Bulb Changer Chuck Kalert
While executives vie for cushy views from power lairs in the Metropolitan Building and judges gaze on lovely vistas from the new Eagleton Federal Courthouse, one man's job affords him a 360-degree panorama. For eleven years, Chuck Kalert has been the primary light-bulb changer at the Gateway Arch. Once a year, he swings open the Arch's ceiling hatch and, strapped with safety gear, crawls out to change the bulb before it burns out. Kalert's view is spectacular, but not, of course, without its dangers. All it takes is a 20-mph wind to get the Arch to sway one inch to either side, and potential Arch surfers beware: A 150-mph wind could make it sway nine inches to either side.
