Simon Rodia, an Italian immigrant tile mason, spent 33 years building the Watts Towers in Los Angeles entirely by hand - no machines, no scaffolding, no bolts, no welds, no blueprints. His only tools were pipe-fitter pliers and a window-washer belt. The tallest spire reaches 99 feet. When he finished in 1954, he deeded the land to a neighbor, boarded a bus, and never came back.
