Greetings Vern,

Iron and steel preservation has led us to many historic sites in recent years, with some described in posts under “Craftsman’s Record” on the Historic Bridge Restoration website. A heartfelt thanks to Mike Piersa and Emily Marchello at the National Museum of Industrial History for their assistance in making the pamphlet, “George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River at New York,” available as a pdf for this newsletter.

Two historic bridge presentations are scheduled for this year in Michigan, with details listed below. In addition, I’ve been in conversation with Dr. Robert J. Connor at Purdue University to organize another ISP Conference and Workshop for Fall of 2027, similar to the one held in May 2016. More about this in future ISP Newsletters.

Vern Mesler

April 2025

We have been supporters of Mike Piersa, an industrial historian at the National Museum for Industrial History in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and are especially interested in the research and demonstrations he has done with the industrial riveting process. We have assisted Piersa with rivet demonstrations, field rivet equipment, and funds for the purpose of purchasing rivet equipment. Piersa has supported our work in Iron & Steel Preservation and our efforts to locate documentation and photographs of the industrial shop riveting process. Many of the USA’s famous riveted bridges were fabricated at McClintic-Marshall Corporation, a subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel Corporation. During our June 2024 visit to Bethlehem, we had an opportunity to search the archival records of the National Museum for Industrial History for documentation of the industrial riveting process in steel fabrication at McClintic-Marshall Corporation. While at the archives, Piersa handed us a copy of the pamphlet “George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River at New York.” It didn’t take more than a glance to realize this was a treasure trove of documentation and photographs of the fabrication of the George Washington Bridge (circa 1930s). Unfortunately, this was a xerox copy that had been scanned multiple times, making many of the photographs dark and unrecognizable. Nan took several pictures with her iPhone of the clearer photographs; with some editing in Photoshop, some fabrication detail was visible. Ever since, we’ve been looking for an original of this pamphlet. A detailed search on the internet and used book sites has generated only one used copy, and a few days after ordering it, we received an apologetic email saying the book was no longer available.

Emily Marchello, Manager of Collections & Exhibitions at the National Museum of Industrial History, scanned the document from their archives, providing a clearer view of the text. With the museum’s permission, this scanned copy is available at the link below: "From the National Museum of Industrial History permanent collection."

NOTE: Captions and text for the five black-and-white photographs shown here are all from the pamphlet, “George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River at New York.”

THE ASSEMBLING OF A FLOOR BEAM. The flanges have been separately assembled, reamed, and riveted, and are here being fitted to the web-plate in a vertical position. Stiffeners and other details are being added. The floor beam is upside down with respect to its position in the bridge.

Above, a shop, or "tryout"" assembly of base sections of one of the tower legs at one of the eastern fabricating plants.

“Worm’s-Eye View” of one of the completed towers, 560 ft. high above piers. Five feet higher than the Washington Monument.

THIS ILLUSTRATION gives a clear idea of the unusual make-up of the main columns. A column is being assembled in the shop for completion of riveting, and the crane is lowering one flange into place. Four such columns are directly under each cable saddle and four more outside of and braced thereto, making eight columns for each tower leg, or 32 for the bridge.

AFTER REAMING, the floor beams were carried by the shop cranes to pedestals, on which they were laid horizontally for riveting. Deep-yoke riveters were required to reach the rivets in the center of the 10-ft. webs. Most rivets were 1 in. in diameter, and were heated to uniform temperature in oil-burning furnaces.

Books abound from both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that document the engineering perspective on riveted bridges and the development of their designs. During this same period, advances in wrought iron and steel making processes, metal fabrication methods, and machinery were also made, but these accomplishments are less evident in the written record. A historic riveted metal truss bridge is a craftsman’s record. If one reads it carefully, much can be learned from the bridge itself about the manufacturing processes used in its construction. Presentations to explore this record with a focus on local bridges will take place in September 2025 (details at link below).

Waco's Washington Avenue Bridge is a steel pin-connected Pennsylvania through-truss. This shop-riveted steel truss bridge, fabricated in 1901, was of special interest because of the riveted angle and plate corner brackets. Decorative details in the bracket plate were punched or sheared out, as can be seen in the close-up photo, a feature seen on other historic fabricated iron and steel structures that pre-date oxygen-fuel flame cutting.

San Antonio’s Historic Missions call on Patrick Sparks when their historic churches are in need of repair. Sparks Engineering is a short distance from an I-35 exit on North Flores Street, located in a San Antonio historic home, surrounded by old street names, Euclid, Elmina, Jackson. The house was built with caliche blocks (also known as San Antonio Soft Rock) in 1881 by Celestine Villamain.

News from the State Republican, Lansing, Michigan, March 25th, 1904:“Kalamazoo Street Bridge Swept Away and Is Lodged Against the Michigan Avenue Structure. This has been a day to be marked in local history as one of disaster. To use the words of a small boy, who was more impressed with the free excitement furnished than the seriousness of the damage inflicted, there had been a whole ‘mess of doings.’ ” Like the Kalamazoo Street Bridge in Lansing in 1904, the restored Parshallburg Bridge in Chesaning in 2008 was swept away and demolished.

In Mackinaw City for the Labor Day Bridge Walk, I noticed riveted connections on an approach span, the same type of configuration that I fit up and welded earlier in my career. After over thirty years in steel fabrication, forty-plus years as an adjunct welding instructor, and many years in iron and steel preservation, to make this connection with my work in steel fabrication and preservation has left me a bit in awe of this experience.

This is the reposting of an article written in 2010 about a tour of Chicago Fastener in Mokena, Illinois, with a Lansing Community College colleague to inspect the production of steel rivets for a historic bridge rehabilitation project in Boston, Massachusetts. Chicago Fastener was sold in 2018 and relocated to University Park, Illinois, under new ownership. An original PDF of the 2010 article was sent to the current Chicago Fastener Office Manager who appreciated receiving the article and passed it along to some of the employees who have been with Chicago Fastener for over 40 years.

Photographs have been edited to include captions. Note in the 2010 article there is reference to an Iron Steel Preservation Conference workshop scheduled for 2015, which unfortunately was cancelled due to low enrollment.

Click on the image to view a video about the Calhoun County Historic Bridge Park, produced by Central Michigan University for Destination Michigan, a program aired through PBS.

November 2024, ISP Chronicle

May 2024, ISP Chronicle

December 2023, ISP Chronicle

Please consider contributing to the Iron and Steel Preservation Program Fund. This fund was established to support projects, research, conferences and scholarships related to the repair, rehabilitation, and restoration of metals. The Lansing Community College Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation. Use the link below, and specify "Iron and Steel Preservation Program Fund" in the comments box in the online form. Thank you for your support!

Iron and Steel Preservation Program Fund

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