1)Spanning the Strait: Building the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge. 2)Bridging the Tacoma Narrows. 3)Carquinez Bridge: 1927-2007.
Notable awards
Guggenheim Fellowship 2006
John V. Robinson (born 1960) is an American writer and photojournalist who specializes in photographing heavy construction work with a focus on bridge construction and the men and women who do the work. Robinson goes onto construction sites and does detailed photo essays of the iron workers, pile drivers, carpenters, laborers, and crane operators who do this demanding and dangerous work. He frequently collects oral histories of the workers.[1][2][3][4]
Robinson at Tacoma Narrows Bridge Project. Copyright 2006 Gav Thorpe
Robinson also does freelance photography work and his construction shots are frequently published in San Francisco Bay Area newspapers, used in calendars, and used in advertising campaigns of construction and engineering firms. John Robinson's photo-essays on bridge construction and history have been published in nine books and his articles and photographs regularly appear in professional and trade journals like The Ironworker[5] and Engineering News Record.[6][7]
John Robinson was educated at U.C. Berkeley where he took a B.A. in English Literature in 1995. He went on to San Francisco State University where in 1998 he earned a master's degree in English Literature. After finishing graduate school in 1998 Robinson begin teaching at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, CA. Currently Robinson teaches at Las Positas College in Livermore CA and Cal State East Bay in Hayward CA.
Cover of Spanning the Strait. Copyright 2004 John V. Robinson
While a student at U.C. Berkeley Robinson developed in interest in the folklore of working men and women. He studied folklore with the Berkeley folklorist Alan Dundes and developed a close friendship with eminent folklorist Archie Green[8][9] and worked with Green on several projects for the Fund for Labor Culture & History.
He began his study of bridge builders in 1995 by interviewing the famed bridge builder Alfred Zampa who is most notable for being one of the first people to survive falling off the Golden Gate Bridge.[10] Zampa was a charter member of the Half Way to Hell Club, whose members are the men who fell from the Golden Gate Bridge and were saved by the nets.[11] The Zampa interview Robinson collected in 1995 was recently published in the 2015 book, Bay Area Iron Master Al Zampa. The book also contains The Ace, a play written by Isabelle Maynard, based on Al Zampa's experience building the Golden Gate Bridge.
In 1999 he merged his interests in photography and folklore and began photographing construction workers for an article he was researching on the labor-lore tradition called topping-out. This article was published in Western Folklore in 2001 and has been widely cited by others writing on the topping-out custom.[12] Robinson's writing and photography have been instrumental in bringing more public attention to the mysterious Bay Bridge Troll (as well as the twin troll).
In 2001 Robinson began photographing the construction of Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge and in 2004 published his first book, Spanning the Strait: Building the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge. The success of Spanning the Strait brought Robinson's work to the attention of contractors, transportation agencies, and engineering firms, who have commissioned him to do other large construction projects. In 2007 two such long-term projects resulted in the publication of Building the Benicia-Martinez Bridge and Bridging the Tacoma Narrows. Both books are published by Carquinez Press.
The publication of his books and articles have led Robinson to be interviewed for such shows as: Modern Marvels "Oakland Bay Bridge," and National Geographic Channel's "Break it Down: Bridge."
In 2006 Robinson was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of Folklore and Popular Culture to study the traditions of high-steel iron workers. In 2007 he received a grant from the California Council for the Humanities to continue his photography project on the demolition of the 1927 Carquinez Bridge. A book on that project, titled Carquinez Bridge: 1927-2007, was published in November 2016. Robinson's new book titled The Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge Troll was published in March 2018.
Awards
Crockett Community Foundation Award (2005) to document the deconstruction of the 1927 Carquinez Bridge for the Crockett History Museum.
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
Crockett is a census-designated place (CDP) in Contra Costa County, in the East Bay sub-region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. The population was 3,094 at the 2010 census. It is located 28 miles northeast of San Francisco. Other nearby communities include Port Costa, Martinez, Vallejo, Benicia, Rodeo, Hercules, Pinole and Richmond.
Port Costa is a small town and census-designated place (CDP) in Contra Costa County, California, located in East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Situated on the southern shore of the Carquinez Strait, the population was 242 at the 2020 based on United States Census Bureau.
Interstate 780 (I-780) is an east–west auxiliary Interstate Highway in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It runs from Curtola Parkway and Lemon Street in Vallejo to I-680 just north of the Benicia–Martinez Bridge in Benicia. It closely parallels the Carquinez Strait for its entire route. Originally, this segment was part of I-680 before that Interstate was extended and rerouted to Fairfield. The city-maintained Curtola Parkway continues west from I-80 to State Route 29 (SR 29) in Vallejo.
Mare Island is a peninsula in the United States in the city of Vallejo, California, about 23 miles (37 km) northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait juncture with the east side of San Pablo Bay. Mare Island is a peninsula, as no full body of water separates this or several other named "islands" from the mainland. Instead, a series of small sloughs cause seasonal water-flows among the so-called islands. Mare Island is the largest of these at about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long and a mile wide.
San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in the East Bay and North Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California.
The Carquinez Strait is a narrow tidal strait located in the Bay Area of Northern California, United States. It is part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain into the San Francisco Bay. The strait is eight miles (13 km) long and connects Suisun Bay, which receives the waters of the combined rivers, with San Pablo Bay, a northern extension of the San Francisco Bay.
State Route 123 is a 7.39-mile (11.89 km) state highway in the U.S. state of California in the San Francisco Bay Area. Named San Pablo Avenue for almost its entire length except for its northernmost 0.10 miles (0.16 km), SR 123 is a major north–south state highway along the flats of the urban East Bay. Route 123 runs between Interstate 580 in Oakland in the south and Interstate 80 at Cutting Boulevard in Richmond in the north. San Pablo Avenue itself, a portion of Historic US 40, continues well past the SR 123 designation south to Downtown Oakland and north to Crockett.
The Carquinez Bridge is a pair of parallel bridges spanning the Carquinez Strait at the northeastern end of San Francisco Bay. They form the part of Interstate 80 between Crockett and Vallejo, California, United States.
The Benicia–Martinez Bridge refers to three parallel bridges which cross the Carquinez Strait just west of Suisun Bay in California; the spans link Benicia on the north side with Martinez on the south.
The Niles Canyon Railway (NCRy) is a heritage railway running on the first transcontinental railroad alignment through Niles Canyon, between Sunol and the Niles district of Fremont in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area, in California, United States. The railway is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Niles Canyon Transcontinental Railroad Historic District. The railroad is operated and maintained by the Pacific Locomotive Association which preserves, restores and operates historic railroad equipment. The NCRy features public excursions with both steam and diesel locomotives along a well-preserved portion of the first transcontinental railroad.
Alfred Zampa was an American iron worker who played a role in the construction of numerous San Francisco Bay Area bridges during the early twentieth century. He was most notable for being one of the first people to survive falling off the Golden Gate Bridge. He was a charter member of the Half Way to Hell Club, whose members are the men who fell from the Golden Gate Bridge and were saved by the nets.
The Ambridge–Aliquippa Bridge is a steel cantilever through truss bridge which crosses the Ohio River at Ambridge, Pennsylvania. The bridge was originally named the Ambridge-Woodlawn Bridge but was soon renamed Ambridge-Aliquippa when Woodlawn was eclipsed by the rapid expansion of the Aliquippa Works of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company. Ambridge was incorporated in 1910 - named after the American Bridge Company which had significant operations along the Ohio River opposite the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company.
San Francisco Bay in California has been served by ferries of all types for over 150 years. John Reed established a sailboat ferry service in 1826. Although the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge led to the decline in the importance of most ferries, some are still in use today for both commuters and tourists.
John Swett High School is located in Crockett, California, United States. It serves the communities of Crockett, Port Costa, Rodeo, and the Foxboro area of Hercules. It is named after John Swett, former California Superintendent of Public Instruction, elected in 1863. John Swett High School was established in 1927. The school remains in its original building complex, which was extensively renovated five years after original construction for seismic retrofitting at a cost of two-thirds of the original cost of the complex. John Swett High School is part of the John Swett Unified School District.
Selby is an unincorporated community in Contra Costa County, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California.
Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline is a regional park, part of the East Bay Regional Park District system, located in northwestern Contra Costa County, California.
The Western Pacific Railroad (1862–1870) was formed in 1862 to build a railroad from Sacramento, California, to the San Francisco Bay, the westernmost portion of the First transcontinental railroad. After the completion of the railroad from Sacramento to Alameda Terminal on September 6, 1869, and then the Oakland Pier on November 8, 1869, which was the Pacific coast terminus of the transcontinental railroad, the Western Pacific Railroad was absorbed in 1870 into the Central Pacific Railroad.
The Bay Bridge Troll is an 18-inch steel figure that was welded to the eastern span of the original San Francisco Bay Bridge. It was replaced by a newer version in 2013 once the construction of the new Bay Bridge was complete. The creator of the original troll, Bill Roan, is a blacksmith turned artist who lived near the Bay Bridge.
The Half Way to Hell Club was an exclusive club organized by the men who fell from the Golden Gate Bridge during its construction in 1936 and 1937 and were saved by the safety nets. One of the club's earliest members was Iron Worker Al Zampa who fell into the safety nets in October 1936.
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