It’s nice having our city-wide friends at The SunBreak around to satisfy our curiosity about things visible from the neighborhood. They dug into the recent appearance of the big crane on top of the building formerly known as Key Tower:

It’s a 52-ton crane, and it’s there to hoist a “building maintenance unit” to the rooftop of theSeattle Municipal Tower. The BMU, as we’re calling it now, sounds like something you might be able to charge admission to.

It sits in a well on the roof, and gives maintenance workers access to all sides of the tower, from floor 62 to the first floor. Most excitingly, it comes with a crane itself, a telescoping arm with a reach of 112 feet, that holds a personnel basket (16 feet wide, 2-3 people, up to 750 pounds).

I think you can count me out of any rides on a 112 foot arm 60 floors above street level.