The Daily Reporter | A History of Construction | Building from a strong foundation

Building from a strong foundation

By Chris Thompson

Tracking the history of the construction industry is both overwhelming and incredibly simple: Your history is everywhere, in every building, road and bridge. It’s in the structures built more than 100 years ago and in those that are going up today.

Look out your window, and you’ll see some monument to your history. It might be a house built 50 years ago or an office building from the turn of the century. You can see the techniques and trends from the 1920s, and how changes in society impacted the styles of your predecessors. And that’s what’s so astounding about construction - it’s history literally reflects the history of the world.

We started in the late 1800s and tried to break down the history of Wisconsin construction by decades. We brought in long-time Daily Reporter columnist Dick Snow to walk with you through the major innovations and changes in construction throughout the last century. And we gathered as many photos as possible so you could see examples of your rich tradition.

You’ll see photos from the 1920s and earlier, when horses pulled the plows, a bulldozer meant a strong guy with a shovel and fall protection meant hoping the ground was soft when you landed. We highlighted the 1930s and ‘40s, when construction helped the country survive the Great Depression, and World War II lurked in the wings.

We took a look at the 1950s and ‘60s, when the country embarked on its national highway projects and construction equipment and work began to resemble what we see today.

But those photos and Snow’s narrative don’t stop with the modernization of the industry. They carry right up to the last few years because, really, every time you walk on to a job site, you’re making history. And the history you make today will one day stand as a testament to the ingenuity, craftsmanship and honor with which you performed your work during the dawn of this new century.

We did the best we could to highlight as many members of the industry as possible, but we simply couldn’t include all of you. We hope what you see will offer a proper representation of where you’re from and where you’re going.

This, also, won’t be a textbook-style recounting of your history. But you should, as Snow put it, "consider the foregoing a popular summary of Wisconsin’s construction history ... and our salute to the men and women of the industry."

Questions or help? Drop us a line