Posted by Natchraz Usually *most* metal is safe.

OK I'll agree but most is a general description, however, Ive seen plenty of metal that would not support a man's weight and hence, not safe in everything from skyscrapers to storm drains.

It rusts it fails its attached to other shit that fails, look up the Kansas City skybridge/balcony failure. Rusty bolts and too much load. Grain mills and silos are bad, all that dust collecting retains moisture whereas in a dry environment it might last centuries.

Any unexpected, anxiety-producing, heart-stopping, hair-raising, terrifying, or horrifying encounter I’ve ever had with anything metal involved the anchors, and almost always involved stairs or a ladder.
Typically, the upper rail/s have come loose or have even completely disconnected, on one or both points where the metal is [supposed to be] attached to the wall. My fault was in not checking those anchors prior to committing myself to significant risk (i.e., height).

Luckily, I never had any of the aforementioned give out completely on me, just scare the crap out of me once I realized I my life was in the balance of the one remaining rusty old screw holding the ladder in place. These issues are not as immediately obvious as you would think they’d be, but there’s really no excuse to not be more careful.

My personal experiences as mentioned above were probably due to complacency and/or carelessness and I don’t recommend engaging in either when it comes to life and limb (insert healthy dose of self-admonishment here).

That's definitely a risk you have to assess yourself. Those metal stairs are pretty sturdy but man the wooden ones are really sketchy. I don't mess with that.

Needless to say if you're a fatass then don't try this.

OP has not been back since August y'all need to stop giving out so much beneficial info he probably fell through that rotten catwalk!

I'll walk over a half collapsed wooden floor with less fear than I will a rusty fire escape, especially when you're six stories up. There's one particular abandonment in Chicago that fans of Wile. E. Coyote might know the name of that required climbing one such fire escape to get to the top of, and it scared the crap out of me.

I still climbed it of course, but not without a good deal of unease.