Historic Hood River
Before OSHA
Notes
Adding a lift mechanism to the Hood River White Salmon Bridge required major reinforcements of the reinforced concrete piers at either end of the span. If you look below the platform this man is standing on you can see they have added many steel beams around the old pier, and tied them together with rebar. This man is punching holes in this pier which presumably were used for additional steel to tie the two sides together. They then built a form around all of this and filled it with concrete so the pier could handle the weight of the lift tower and the forces of the lifting process. This image is from September 29, 1937.
This image shows the difference between the piers at the lift span and the others. This image shows what they looked like before reinforcement.
I don’t think OSHA would approve of the lack of ear or eye protection– or the cigarette. If you look carefully you’ll see there is a second man even closer to the jackhammer, perhaps helping guide the tool.
Dale Nicol
Nice to see more details needed to support the weight of the lift span. Once concreted in place, you have no idea about the engineering modifications that were executed.
As Arthur pointed out, the lack of eye protection and no doubt ear protection goes to show why OSHA safety rules help protect us from our own lack of safety. Just look at all of the small concrete chips on the platform and how lucky these guys are not to lose an eye yet.
Pat A
Glad there are two men, even with the rope holding the weight it’s too much for one person. Tough job.
I think they may (hopefully) have cotton in them ears?
Arlen L sheldrake
another example of the “good old days” not being so “good”.