Water under the bridge
End of times nears for our old workhorse monument
The carnegie Foundation
The Steel came from Carnegie’s Homestead Steel Factory in Pennsylvania. 40 years earlier it was the site of one of America’s first major strikes for labor rights which ended up turning into the “Homestead Massacre” which precipitated the labor rights movement in America.
Bay-line rail
Supplies to make the bridge were brought out by railway supported on pilings in the shallows. Before the bridge was built this spur existed to bring in goods from ships moored at the edge of the deeper water.
side-walk
How tough did they make people back in the late 1930's? Where is the woman's bottle of water or bicycle? How many miles to home after she hits land?
Train
The upper deck was for passenger cars. The lower deck handled trucks and passenger trains. The trains terminated at the transbay Terminal.
Bracing for wind
These cross braces look small but each quarter of the "X" brace is as long as a semi flatbed trailer. Our collection all stems from a full 4-piece "X" that we were able to salvage.
Pre-ship package
These 4 girders from the "X" brace lie staged in waiting for us to pick up.
THe first cut
Rushing oxygen super heats and blasts through the the first girders as workers prepare to remove the first section of bridge.
rivetted
Hot rivets hold it all together. The entire bridge was fastened this way. You often see original rivets from the bridge in our designs.
XXL
Where are we going to put this?
fire hose power
Sandblasting the paint off is how they do the lead abatement. The facility up at Mare Island can handle whole rail cars on the inside of the blasting chamber. Pic at left shows them working on a small piece of our Bay Bridge Beam Metal
missed branding opportunity
The stamps on our steel bear the name of Andrew Carnegie . The company awarded the bridge work was US Steel, the name JP Morgan gave it after he bought it from Carnegie. (note the "H" at the end denotes the Homestead Mill.) They just neglected to change the mill stamp after the mgmt. change.
oxide
After the paint is blasted off, it doesn't take long for a fresh coat of orange rust to transform the silver-gray steel.
slow fade
Pic shot in the evening fog a few weeks before retirement.
504 shadow
The truss sections were named after the length of their spans. Cars drove through the middle of these types called "Through Trusses", each was Five Hundred and Four feet long.