Former laborer remembers working on Big Mac Bridge By Clayton Hardiman, Muskegon Chronicle, MI
Stewart remembers the day he reported for work, just happy for a job. A massive caisson, manufactured north of Alpena, was being towed up the coast to the bridge site. Stewart would do welding work on the caisson. He was the first ironworker hired for the bridge construction project.
He can cite details about the day when his best friend fell to his death. He remembers the accidents that almost claimed his own life as well.
Now it's 50 years later, and Stewart's memories are a mixed blessing, sometimes haunting and almost always precise.
Ellsworth 'Elly' Stewart, who spent most of his ironwork career in Muskegon, is a bubbling cauldron of stories. Not all of them are solemn. Some are hilarious. Many are treasure troves of historical fact.
He can talk for hours about ironwork, the men who performed it and how it was done.