there would be a crowd of onlookers at the quayside to cheer his safe arrival home , eager to witness his first reaction to seeing the finished product of all his years of planning , and there would be a tear in his eye as he gazed upwards , ever upwards , the summit of his great undertaking momentarily lost in the blur of the sunlight beyond , and realised that he , alone , had attempted to surmount the heavens , and had succeeded .