The stock market isn’t the only thing that tumbled on Wall Street.
A listing crane careened into the side of a city-owned building in lower Manhattan last night — sending pieces of the façade plummeting to the ground.
The crash against 80 Maiden Lane, which houses several government agencies, sent panicked pedestrians scurrying away from debris that rained down on them from 23 stories above just after 7 p.m.
“We saw it inching down, it took off some of its façade,” said David Green, 44. “I don’t know how it didn’t do more damage.”
No one was inside at the time, but four surrounding buildings were evacuated. “It sounded like a bunch of plates hitting a metal table,” said Peter Messinis, 29, who manages a pizzeria on the block.
No one was injured in the incident, which left the crane’s arm hovering across Maiden Lane.
The crane was being used to install air conditioners on the 25-story building.
Sewer maintenance was being performed earlier in the day, but no work was going on when the crane’s arm slid down two stories and smashed into the 23rd-floor ledge.
Dave Lawrence, 26 said he had a bad feeling yesterday morning when the crane was being raised.
“It looked wrong from the start,” he said.
Witnesses said the boom was slowly creeping down for about 20 minutes.
Authorities were investigating what caused the crane to fall. It was pulled out of service last night. A complaint was lodged on March 8 about a crane at the site, but no violation was found.
