By Bob Egelko and Kevin Fagan
San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — A daredevil in a red jumpsuit, equipped with suction cups and an American flag, clambered up 58 stories of a San Francisco residential tower Monday to dramatize the vulnerability of skyscrapers to terrorism and his own fight against cancer.
It was also, his publicist acknowledged afterward, an attempt to call attention to his recent book - which, he said, details his concerns in detail.
The climber, who identified himself in a flyer as Dan Goodwin, a.k.a. SpiderDan, was greeted by police as he reached a balcony two floors below the top of the 60-story Millennium Tower at 301 Mission St. He was arrested for trespassing and creating a public nuisance, both misdemeanors, said Lt. Kevin McNaughton.
Goodwin, 54, is a building contractor who lives in North Lake Tahoe. According to a news release left for reporters at the outset of his three-hour climb, he had scaled the World Trade Center in New York in 1983 to illustrate the difficulty of rescues from skyscrapers.
He claimed he was recruited by U.S. military personnel in 2000 to train them for a World Trade Center ascent, but backed out after being diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer a month later.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the twin towers, Goodwin said, he vowed to make the public aware of the dangers of living beyond the reach of conventional rescue equipment. That was the point of “Skyscraperman,” a book he published in January, and the purpose of Monday’s climb, he said.
“The No. 1 reason Dan was on that tower today was that he wants to call attention to the lack of ability to rescue people from skyscrapers in this country,” his co-author, D.B. Guidinger of Marin County, said in a phone interview from Japan. “We could use helicopters to do rooftop rescues, and there are other methods - a lot of things are better than what we have now.
“Sure, we’re plugging the book, too, but the book is a byproduct of all of this,” he said. “It’s just where he put it all down in writing.”
Guidinger said the last major building Goodwin climbed was the CN Tower in Toronto in 1986. His continuing concern for skyscraper safety, and the desire to inspire those with cancer, are what drew him Monday, Guidinger said.
“He’s got other things planned, but I can’t get into that,” Guidinger said. Upon hearing from The Chronicle that Goodwin had just made it to the top without falling, Guidinger sighed with relief and said, “We’re celebrating on the other side of the planet.”
Building security alerted police about 2:15 p.m., and fire crews rushed in and hollered at the climber to come inside, while officers cordoned off a one-block area and rerouted Muni buses, McNaughton said. When he continued to ascend, the officer said, several officers followed him up each floor from inside the building as others deployed to the roof.
Applause broke out among several dozen onlookers on the street when Goodwin reached the balcony around 5:20 and waved before his arrest.
Chris Brown, who lives on the 42nd floor and shot videos as SpiderDan crawled past his window, was among those applauding.
“I feel what that guy’s going through,” he said. “He’s making the most of his life at this moment.”
Rebecca Schutt of Lafayette, a concierge on the ground floor of the Millennium Tower, was less approving, wondering how a resident coming out of the shower might feel to see a red-suited stranger at the window. “He had other ways of exhibiting his platform,” she said.
Copyright 2010 San Francisco Chronicle