Alfred Zampa

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Alfred "Al" Zampa (born March 12, 1905 in Selby , Contra Costa County , California , † April 23, 2000 in Tormey , California) was an American steel construction worker who worked on various bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area and was a member of the so-called Half-Way-to-Hell-Club counted. In 2003 the newly built, third Carquinez Bridge in the Bay Area was posthumously named in his honor Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge ( Engl. , Ger. 'Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge').

Life

Alfred Zampa was the son of Italian immigrants to the United States who came from Ortucchio in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Zampa was born in her new home, California, and grew up there as the oldest of five children. He began working as a bridge construction worker in 1925 at the first Carquinez Bridge , a cantilever bridge in the course of today's 80 Interstate the Carquinez Strait - a strait in northern California - crossed. It was the first major bridge in the Bay Area . After its completion in 1927, Zampa worked across the United States on various bridges of various sizes. During this time he married Angelina D'Amico, who usually accompanied him to the construction site camps and with whom he was married for over fifty years until her death.

In 1934 he returned to the Bay Area and worked first on the Bay Bridge , then for Bethlehem Steel on the Golden Gate Bridge . In 1936, Zampa slipped on a damp steel girder and fell at a point from the Golden Gate Bridge, which was still under construction, where the safety net hung only a few meters above the bank of rocks and therefore could only slow his 13-meter fall. He survived the fall but suffered serious injuries. With this fall, he is considered the first person to fall from the Golden Gate Bridge. He became a member of the Half-Way-to-Hell Club . Zampa recovered only with difficulty from his injuries and was only able to work in bridge assembly again after eight years. After working on numerous other important bridges, he retired in 1970.

Honors

The Carquinez Bridge seen from the northeast, in the foreground the new suspension bridge from 2003 ( Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge ), in the background the old cantilever bridge from 1958

Alfred Zampa was celebrated by the media in 1987 on the 50th anniversary of the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge and featured in The Ace , a play by Isabelle Maynard about him and the Golden Gate Bridge.

In early 2000, Zampa was the celebrated guest of honor at the groundbreaking ceremony for the third Carquinez Bridge, a suspension bridge over the Carquinez Strait that was built downstream next to the second Carquinez Bridge from 1958. It replaced the original bridge from 1927, which Zampa had once helped to build. He did not live to see the completion of the new bridge; he died in April 2000 at the age of 95. The third Carquinez Bridge was opened in November 2003 and was posthumously officially named Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge in honor of Alfred Zampa . Governor Gray Davis called Zampa "a working-class hero" at the opening ceremony, who had helped build almost all bridges in the Bay Area.

Various commemorative coins commemorate Alfred Zampa and the opening of the bridge. The Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge is the only bridge in the United States. after a blue collar workers (dt., industrial workers '), a construction worker (dt., construction and here bridge construction workers ') and " Iron Man " (dt., steel construction workers'), is named.

In Ortucchio in Italy, where his parents came from, he was posthumously named after a square in the center of the village, the Piazza Alfred Zampa .

literature

  • Charles Kuralt : On the Road with Charles Kuralt. Ballantine Books, New York City 1986, ISBN 0-449-13067-3 , pp. 93-94 (English; interview with and report on Alfred Zampa ).
  • John V. Robinson : Spanning the Strait. Building the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge. Carquinez Press, Crockett (California / USA) 2004, ISBN 0-9744124-1-4 (English).
  • John V. Robinson: Al Zampa and the Bay Area Bridges (=  Images of America ). Arcadia Publishing , Mount Pleasant (South Carolina / USA) 2005, ISBN 0-7385-2996-6 (English).

media

  • Contribution about Alfred Zampa in episode no. 204 of the broadcast format Community - L'altra Italia on Radiotelevisione Italiana (Rai.tv) on November 7, 2014 (Italian; Rai archiver version with video stream , 55:54 min, about minute "08 : 00–16: 00 “: Conversation between the moderator Benedetta Rinaldi and the journalist Luciano Ghelfi from TG2 about his research and reports on Alfred Zampa and the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d The Man . On: Website of the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge Foundation ; accessed on November 25, 2014 (English; detailed portrait of Alfred Zampa ).
  2. ^ NN: Net Grounded. Bridge Worker Falls. May Die. In: San Francisco Chronicle of October 20, 1936, ZDB -ID 1021707-1 (English).
  3. ↑ a b The Bridge . On: Website of the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge Foundation ; Retrieved November 25, 2014 (English; information on the naming of the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge ).
  4. ^ Carl Nolte: Opening day for Carquinez span / Ceremony honors Alfred Zampa, builder of bridges . In: Online portal of the American daily newspaper San Francisco Chronicle (www.sfgate.com) from November 9, 2003; accessed on November 25, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Zampa, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Al (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American bridge worker, member of the Half-Way-to-Hell Club
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Selby , California
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 2000
Place of death Tormey , California