Wednesday, June 21, 2017

The Unabridged Bridge Workshop Experience


Like the level of the creek on the second day of the Salem Creek bridge workshop, which just keeps on rising, students taking the two week training course are getting an ever increasing variety of experiences.


A number of participants are learning to shape the many voussoirs we will need for the bridge arch.


Some are getting instruction building the abutments along the bank.


Others appear to be working on bankers in the middle of the creek shaping pier stones .


A few got their exercise wrestling three of the 800 pound springers into place.


Then off for a first field trip to see several of the dry stone features in the area, including the Gothic arch folly at the site of the 2005 Canadian Dry Stone Wall Festival, built in Port Hope Ontario by professional wallers from Scotland, Switzerland, United States and Canada 



And finally, a full course meal (thank you Mary) at Dry Stone Walling Across Canada headquarters, with lively discussion into the evening about, you guessed it, stones and future bridge projects.