Construction Workers on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge

Unfortunately, most of the individuals within these construction photographs are unidentified. One of the few who were identified was Bridge Engineer Charles E. Andrew (photograph on far right). Andrew was a Bridge Engineer for the California Division of Highways. He worked closely with Chief Engineer C. H. Purcell throughout the construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

The other two photographs show workers hand-wrapping the south cable of the western span of the bridge (to prevent the cables from being damaged by the environmental factors like wind and harsh weather conditions), and another worker receiving rivets for the construction work. Hot steel rivets were used for much of the construction -- over 500,000 rivets were used in the towers of the west span alone. These rivets were replaced by high-strength tension control nuts and bolts during a retrofit of the western span, as it was found that the steel rivets were subject to failure by shearing under certain conditions.

Identification Information: Dept. of Public Works, San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Construction Photographs (F2516:1-93).
Far Left: Hand Wrapping South Cable Span W6-W7, 09/02/1936: Box 12 (C5229), photograph 6-2567.
Middle: Rivet Receiver, 10/18/1934, Box 7 (C5228), photograph 6-405
Far Right: Suspended Span, Chas. E. Andrew, Bridge Engineer, 03/23/1936, Box 14 (C5229),
photograph 7-1294.