The structure of the U.S. construction industry in 1960 could be compared to a stone-walled bastion. Union locals had ironclad control over their recruitment process, which was steeped in nepotism and cronyism.
This 1964 cover features several novel-shaped elementary schools in Greeley, Colo. The buildings’ distinctive circular and hexagonal designs offered flexibility in the use of space.
The most extensive Cold War construction undertaken by the United States was building an elaborate network of missile bases. The first U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile was the Atlas, a 75-ft-long, 10-ft-dia, 130-ton weapon.
This August 1938 cover photo shows workers atop a huge steel member of the cable tieback system during the erection of the Arrigoni Bridge over the Connecticut River between Middletown and Portland, Conn.
This 1933 cover photo shows workers maneuvering a bomb into position on a platform in San Francisco Bay, at a very early stage of the Golden Gate Bridge project.
Bulldozers come first. This slogan crystallizes the role that engineering and construction played in World War II, where combatants were far more mobile than in previous conflicts.
