GUT-WRENCHING: Urban Stuntman Jumps From Roof, Dangles From Crane Above Boystown

Ethan Swanson dangles from a construction crane high above Halsted Street in this 2013 video.

A local man whose breathtaking jump from a Lincoln Park rooftop is going viral today is no stranger to high places in Boystown.

Ninja-in-training Ethan Swanson's latest video shows him jumping from a rooftop in the 1800 block of Sheffield, skirting down the angle of a neighboring roof, then landing feet-first in an outdoor spiral staircase.

But at least two of Swanson's earlier works took place a little closer to home.

Swanson leaps from the roof of Boystown's Slaymaker Gallery 
building, 936 W. Roscoe, in this 2013 video.

His first Boystown stunt, posted in January 2013, shows Swanson leaping off the back of the Slaymaker Gallery building on Roscoe just east of Clark Street.

Most stomach-churning, though, may be the 2013 video that shows Swanson scaling a construction crane above the now-completed Halsted Flats complex at 3740 N. Halsted. Once he's hundreds of feet up, Swanson dangles from the crane by one hand, with nothing but air between him and the asphalt of Halsted Street.

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