Alfred Zampa didn't know what he was getting into when he took a construction job in 1925 on the Carquinez Bridge, one of the first to cross San Francisco Bay. Despite the risk, Zampa relished the challenge and embarked on an illustrious career that made him a local legend. His impressive feats of iron craft are evident in numerous spans, including the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate, as well as others across the country. He was one of the first to survive a fall from the Golden Gate Bridge, making him a founding member of the Halfway to Hell Club in 1936. The Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge, named to honor the man after his death, replaced the first bridge he had worked on nearly eighty years earlier. This remarkable story of skill, grit and enduring spirit is told through oral histories collected by John Robinson and Isabelle Maynard.
On May 21, 1927 the Carquinez Bridge opened to traffic between Crockett and Vallejo, California. Just a few miles north of San Francisco, the Carquinez Bridge was the longest highway bridge in the world when it opened. It was also the first bridge across any part of the San Francisco Bay. The reason you have never heard of this magnificent bridge is because its opening was upstaged by Charles Lindbergh's landing in Paris! For most of its working life the Carquinez Bridge lived in the shadow of its more famous siblings: the Oakland Bay Bridge and the mighty Golden Gate Bridge. Still, the Carquinez Bridge was an engineering triumph. Designed by the great engineer David Steinman, the mighty Carquinez was built using new construction techniques and was the first bridge to use earthquake buffers in the design. A second twin Bridge was opened in 1958 and third replacement bridge was opened in 2003. From 2005 through 2007 the old bridge was deconstructed in reverse order of its construction. In this book John V. Robinson takes readers on a photographic journey through time as he documents the birth, life, and death of one of America's great bridges.
"In November of 1989, as workers were finishing their repairs to the quake damaged section of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge, an 18-inch metal sculpture of a troll was smuggled onto the bridge and welded into place on the structure. Known in popular culture as the "Bay Bridge Troll" the little figure has been the source of much media and public speculation now that a new replacement span is open and the old bridge is being demolished. In this book, writer and photographer John V. Robinson traces the story of the Bay Bridge Troll from its creation in 1989 to its removal in August 2013. The details of the Bay Bridge Troll are curious: the troll was made by someone who didn't initially take credit for it, put on the bridge illegally, and removed without permission. Who has the troll now? Where will it end up? The eastern span of old Bay Bridge is history. But the troll remains, a mute witness to one of the world's great bridges. Who, if anyone, really owns the troll? Like the Maltese Falcon from the old movie (another story of small statuette that takes place in San Francisco), can anyone be said to own the troll except by right of possession?"--Provided by publisher.
Port Costa may be a quiet place now, but it wasnt always thus. The town was born in 1879, when the Central Pacific Railroad built its southern ferry-transfer slip at the mouth of the Bull Valley. For 50 years, trains, passengers, and cargo were transported across the Carquinez Strait from Benicia. A thriving waterfront community with a wild side reminiscent of San Franciscos Barbary Coast sprang up around the ferry terminal and grew during the California wheat boom of the 1880s and 1890s. During this time, Port Costa became one of the busiest ports on the West Coast. The wheat ships and ferryboats are gone now, but Port Costa remains a popular local tourist destination for people who wish to catch a glimpse of Contra Costa Countys historic past.
Hold High the Torch, the first of a series of regimental and squadron histories by the Historical Branch, G-3 Division, Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps, is designed primarily to acquaint the members of the 4th Marines, past and present, with the history of their regiment. In addition, it is hoped this volume will enlarge public understanding of the Marine Corps’ worth both in limited war and as a force in readiness. During most of its existence the 4th Marines was not engaged in active military operations, but service of the regiment in China, the Dominican Republic, and off the west coast of Mexico, was typical of the Marine Corps’ support of national policy. In many of its combat operations, the 4th Marines was only one element of a much larger force. In other instances, as in the Dominican Republic and China, the regiment was a subordinate unit in situations which were essentially political and diplomatic. Only so much of these higher echelon activities as are essential to an understanding of the 4th Marines story have been told. This is a regimental history and the focus is therefore on the 4th Marines.
Ginzburg, "the preeminent Italian historian of his generation [who] helped create the genre of microhistory" ("New York Times"), ruminates on how perspective affects what we see and understand. 26 illustrations.
First published in 1935, Pilgrims of the Wild is Grey Owl’s autobiographical account of his transition from successful trapper to preservationist. With his Iroquois wife, Anahereo, Grey Owl set out to protect the environment and the endangered beaver. Powerful in its simplicity, Pilgrims of the Wild tells the story of Grey Owl’s life of happy cohabitation with the wild creatures of nature and the healing powers of what he referred to as "the great Northland" of "Over the Hills and Far Away." A bestseller at the time, Pilgrims of the Wild helped establish Grey Owl’s international reputation as a conservationist. His legacy of warnings against the degradations of nature and the dangers of industry live on, despite the posthumous revelation that he wasn’t, in fact, the First Nations man he claimed to be.
An unusually structured memoir reflecting an equally unique childhood. Maynard paints her youth as a Russian Jewish emigre in Tientsin, China, with short, broad strokes, recreating conversations and events in short vignettes and vividly conveying the "alien" community separated from the Chinese and each other by virtue of the difference none seem prepared to bridge. The characters, a British diplomat's wife and daughter, the anti-semitic Russian Orthodox Christians, the French nuns, all take on a new life through the author's sure footed and sensitive prose. Includes photographs. Paper edition (unseen), $13.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
As aging trends in the United States and Europe in particular are strongly suggestive of increasingly older society, it would be prudent for health care providers to better prepare for such changes. By including physiology, disease, nutrition, pharmacology, pathology, radiology and other relevant associated topics, Geriatric Gastroenterology fills the void in the literature for a volume devoted specifically to gastrointestinal illness in the elderly. This unique volume includes provision of training for current and future generations of physicians to deal with the health problems of older adults. It will also serve as a comprehensive guide to practicing physicians for ease of reference. Relevant to the geriatric age group, the volume covers epidemiology, physiology of aging, gastrointestinal physiology, pharmacology, radiology, pathology, motility disorders, luminal disorders, hepato-biliary disease, systemic manifestations, neoplastic disorders, gastrointestinal bleeding, cancer and medication related interactions and adverse events, all extremely common in older adults; these are often hard to evaluate and judge, especially considering the complex aging physiology. All have become important components of modern medicine. Special emphasis is be given to nutrition and related disorders. Capsule endoscopy and its utility in the geriatric population is also covered. Presented in simple, easy to read style, the volume includes numerous tables, figures and key points enabling ease of understanding. Chapters on imaging and pathology are profusely illustrated. All chapters are written by specialists and include up to date scientific information. Geriatric Gastroenterology is of great utility to residents in internal medicine, fellows in gastroenterology and geriatric medicine as well as gastroenterologists, geriatricians and practicing physicians including primary care physicians caring for older adults.
