Cranes have been around since 515 B.C.E.—long before they were machine operated. The ancient Greeks used crane-like structures to build their temples and lifted tongs and iron. The first crane-like application was the winch and pulley that replaced ramps for moving materials vertically. Instead of engines powering these long arms of construction, men and donkeys powered the first cranes to help construct tall buildings. The addition of treadwheels later on allowed the ancient cranes to move heavier weights.
The Romans followed suit and developed a simple crane—trispatos—that had a single beam job, winch and a block with three pulleys. The main advantage of this engineering discovery was that humans could use trispatos without exerting a lot of effort. Roman cranes could lift better than Greek cranes, and they often used multiple cranes to build their temples and buildings.
By the Middle Ages, treadwheel cranes were used in Europe. Harbor cranes followed a few years later, helping with the construction of ships and their loading and unloading. The introduction of steam engines around the beginning of the 19th century—600 years later—changed the operational dynamics, replacing man- and donkey-powered cranes.
The modern crane construction machine built in the 20th century had a much higher lifting capacity than their predecessors, due to the internal combustion engines or electric motors with a hydraulic system that powered them.