“OZ” Trucking & Rigging has been in business since 1894, and is now run by the fourth generation of the Ousey Family, Paul Ousey. Opening their doors to business at the turn of the 20th century, the company provided transportation, rigging, and storage.
Initially, horses were used before cranes and heavy equipment became available. Projects they managed varied from the installation of rooftop water towers to bank vaults.
Historic Projects
In the 19th century, NYC required that all buildings higher than six stories be equipped with a rooftop water tower. This was necessary to prevent the need for excessively high pressures at lower elevations, which could burst pipes. The original water towers were built out of cedar and were simple to disassemble after being built and reassemble on the target rooftop. The image on the left shows one of the first steel rooftop watertanks being hoisted to the rooftop using horses and pulleys.
“OZ” Trucking & Rigging has played a historic role throughout its more than 100 year existence. Some highlights include: In 1932 we hoisted the parabolic antennas to the top of the Empire State Building. In the days of the depression, we delivered washers and dryers to all the apartment complexes that were built for service men coming home from the war. In the 1980’s we partnered with Mosler & Omron in the distribution and installation of Automated Teller Machines. Since then, we have installed 1000’s of ATM’s for nearly every manufacturer.
