Honoring Craftsmen / Craftswomen
An industrial 1930’s brick and steel building in Richmond, California, with shop-riveted columns and trusses, houses Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park. (More accurately, at this site it was Wendy the Welder doing the ship-building work.) It was our first visit to this National Historical Park, and we were impressed with its layout and exhibits, and the building’s…
When stagecoach driver Col. Clark Foss drove his trained team of horses along Geysers Road in the 1880’s it had one-lane sections, sharp curves, steep grades, and ravines dropping hundreds of feet. While our team of horses resides under the hood of our 2011 GMC Canyon pickup, the sharp curves, steep grades, and ravines remain on Geysers Road in 2026. Our destination was the Geysers Road Historic…
As a steel fabricator and in my work in the preservation of historic truss bridges, I’ve worked with many types of industrial cranes and recognize the vital role the mobile crane and its operator has in the handling of iron and steel. I had one memorable experience as a young steel fabricator working with a retired crane operator and an early twentieth century crawler crane that contributed to my…
Thousands of pounds of redwood logs stretching along a logger’s pole trailer enter the historic Haupt Creek Bridge in northern Sonoma County, California. Its twelve massive, forty-inch tires roll over riveted wrought iron floor beams. Upset wrought iron diagonal eyebars, pin connected to longitudinal phoenix columns forming the top chord and pin connected to phoenix column verticals, join at…
Iron is a word often used to convey strength, in describing a product, an experience, or a person. It is an abundant element and, when mixed with other elements, increases in strength and value. As a steel fabricator, I learned through work and study the importance of iron in steel, but it was my experience in the restoration of historic riveted truss bridges where I developed a deeper…
On May 15th of this year, we met with Calhoun County Parks Coordinator, Luke Siefken, at the Calhoun County Historic Bridge Park in Michigan. Siefken and Lucy Hough (Assistant Director Community Development) have established a maintenance schedule for the five historic bridges in the park, and Siefken shared this with us during our visit at the Historic Bridge Park. We finished our tour of the…
Walls of rivets in buildings, ships, and bridges. Many are still an essential part of the transportation infrastructure of the United States and other countries. Shop-riveted with power driven pneumatic and hydraulic riveters, rivets are first heated and then, under the immense compressive force of a shop-riveter, they are driven to perform under heavy and fundamental stresses. These shop-riveted…
Inside the Michigan State Capitol Building Dome In 1985 I was working on an idea for a wall sculpture at Lansing Community College, and I had an opportunity to inspect the interior metal framework of architect Elijah Myers’s dome for the 1871 Michigan State Capitol Building. At the time, Christman Company personnel were walking the hallways, offices, and spaces with clipboards holding copies of…
A tour with cousins from Healdsburg California In 1937 the Golden Gate Bridge opening ceremonies and festivities began with Pedestrian’s Day. At the time, the Golden Gate Bridge was the longest, largest, and fastest cable spun bridge in the country, its towering Art Deco towers complementing its natural surroundings. Thousands of residents participated in the 1937 Pedestrian Day ceremonies by…
Walking along the Golden Gate Bridge pedestrian walkway and approaching the towers, one can see rows of rivets that extend upwards as far as the eye can see. While this experience for me as a steel fabricator is moving, there are other features on this bridge that an iron and steel preservationist greatly appreciates. One of these is the arch located on the San Francisco approach to the Golden…
