Photographing the labor of bridge builders

The photographs may capture soaring views from near the top of the new bridge being constructed across San Francisco Bay. But more often, photographer Joseph A. Blum focused his lens on the ironworkers building the bridge, as he'd documented construction for the last 15 years.

"I joke with people, I was a young man when I came out here when I started on this project," he told correspondent John Blackstone.

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan

Left: A collapsed portion of the Bay Bridge at Oakland is seen October 22, 1989, after the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake rocked northern California.

After a month-long repair to re-open the span, it was determined that a long-term solution was needed to replace the double-deck cantilever bridge. A new span, featuring a single-tower suspension bridge, would now connect a mile-long elevated viaduct (or Skyway) to Yerba Buena Island. Originally scheduled to open in 2007, the much-delayed construction is nearing completion.

Joe Blum - now 72 - was 57 when he first came to the construction site with his camera.

"When they started doing soil samples for the test piles for the new Bay Bridge, I showed up at the barge one day and they let me on," he told Blackstone. "And I've shot virtually everything since then."

Blum's age never seemed to get in his way, as he maneuvered on scaffolding, catwalks and cables hundreds of feet in the air.

The new bridge, the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, replaces a structure built in the 1930s.

"I often try and get the old bridge in the background of my photographs," Blum said. "And somebody said to me, 'Well, why do you want that ugly structure in the back?' I see it as a beautiful structure. It was built with the technology and the understanding that they had at that time."

Left: Rigging a rebar cage.

"What skills do the people who build this bridge have?" Blackstone asked.

"Well, obviously you have to, you know, be fearless in a certain way!" Blum laughed. "You have to be strong. You have to have stamina. And I think you have to have a certain mental and emotional toughness to go out there."

Left: Cutting falsework.

Blum's admiration for ironworkers grows from his own experience. He worked as a boilermaker and welder in San Francisco's shipyards for 25 years.

Then, at age 47, he returned to college, studying for a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focused on the decline of skilled labor as a valued part of the workforce.

Left: Stud welding.

Blum took photographs as workers hammered bolts and wrestled with iron to create the elegant bridge suspended from a single 525-foot-high tower. But as impressive as the structure is, it's the workers that Blum wants us to see.

Left: Installing horizontal iron.

Left: Nailing by-pass chord.

Left: Favco crane operator Nick Shafer delivers a truss piece to ironworkers.

For years Blum simply collected his photos of the bridge construction and sorted out his favorites. It was truly a labor of love; nobody paid him to do the work. His only income was Social Security and a small pension from his days as a boilermaker.

Now he is selling his photos, sometimes for little more than the cost of printing them.

Left: Ironworker Gary Anderson works on installing the main cable strand on the southside span.

Blum's reward for 15 years of hard work is winning the respect of the workers he photographed. "We knew early on that he was always going to be our advocate," said ironworker Ed Meyer III. "We could see it in his eyes and we could see it through the lens of his camera and the images that he took."

This year the San Francisco Arts Commission opened a show of Blum's bridge photos at City Hall.

Left: Ironworkers removing a pin from a 600-ton shackle.

Amid the praise his photographs garnered, Blum said, "It's about these guys. You have no idea how hard and dedicated it is to do that work, no matter what the conditions. There were days they worked 12, 14, 16 hours a day. And it was an honor to be able to shoot them."

Left: Ironworker Tony Costa on the Bay Bridge.

The new eastern span of the bridge (the cost of which has, to date, climbed to $6.4 billion) is scheduled to open after Labor Day weekend 2013.

For more info:
Joseph A. Blum Photography
"The Bridge Builders" by Joseph A. Blum - Exhibit at San Francisco City Hall (through September 27, 2013)
San Francisco Arts Commission
baybridgeinfo.org
Calif. Department of Transportation: San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan