|
Who Am I? | Site Map | Music | FAQ | Contact Me |
 Uncle Henry's Bridge One of the reasons I decided to take this 18-month journey was to explore my family's history, starting here in California. Many years ago, my mother told me that her uncle, a man named Henry Swang, had helped build the Golden Gate Bridge near San Francisco in the 1930s. I never met Henry, who died in Tacoma, Washington seven years before I was born.
Shortly after my mother passed away a few years ago, I discovered a photo album that had belonged to her mother (my grandmother), which I'd never seen. The album contained dozens of precious black-and-white photos from the early 1900s of relatives I didn't know and had never met, including photos of my great-grandparents who died many years before I was born. These were the first pictures that I'd ever seen of them. The photo album was a treasure trove and none of my living relatives had ever seen it nor the photos inside.
One of the most precious photos in the dusty album was a picture taken around 1932 of a partially-completed bridge somewhere, apparently, on the California coast. The caption on the back of the photo said, "This is the bridge Henry is working on."
Although the old photo was in black-and-white and the bridge was only partly finished, I recognized the bridge and remembered that I'd taken a picture of it in 1982 after I'd driven across it during a road trip in my college days. The bridge was about 10 miles south of Monterey in an area known as Big Sur. Of course, when I drove across the bridge many years earlier, I didn't realize that my great-uncle Henry had helped build it. It's known as the Bixby Bridge and is one of the most photographed bridges on the California coast.
I decided to revisit Henry's bridge during this trip and, after leaving the Bay Area, I drove down California's Highway 1 to look for it. I soon discovered the bridge and spent a few hours there admiring Henry's work. Even though I never knew my great-uncle Henry Swang, visiting his Bixby Bridge gave me goosebumps. In fact, I still get goosebumps just looking at these pictures.
Above left: Back in 1982 when I was in college, I was driving on the Pacific Coast Highway and was so amazed by this bridge that I pulled over and took a picture of it. At the time, I had no idea there was a family connection to it. Above right: Seventeen years later, in 1999, I found this photo in my grandmother's old photo album. There was no caption on it but the bridge looked vaguely familiar. I searched through my slide collection and found my 1982 picture of the same bridge. Then I learned that my great-uncle Henry Swang had helped build this bridge in 1932.
Above left: The Bixby Bridge during my visit in 2001. Above right: Me and my great-uncle Henry's bridge. The Bixby Bridge is one of the most photographed bridges on the California coast. I spent a couple hours here admiring the view, and Henry's work.
|
