The birth of Wisconsin's
construction industryThe roots of Wisconsin’s construction industry were actually imported from Europe as English, German, Italian, French and Irish flocked to the New World.
With them came construction skills emanating from the days of craftsmen guilds in far away countries. Those skills were traditionally passed down from fathers to sons, nephews and cousins.
Surviving the Great
Depression and World War IIThe Great Depression of the 1930s followed the high-living days of the ‘20s and had a negative impact on the construction industry in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
This was a period, though, of government construction and public works, and a modicum of activity did take place. It also spawned the birth of labor unions, with craftsmen banding together for better wages, working conditions and job preservation.
A time of innocence and revolution
The next two decades of construction in the Badger State began rather quietly and closed with big-time, revolutionary changes to the industry.
There were ample amounts of personnel to handle the tremendous amount of expansion work resulting from the dearth of private residential and commercial construction during the ‘40s.
The dawn of a new century
Building the Interstate Highway System, including Wisconsin’s portions, has, among other things, rearranged the map.
Through the creation of high speed corridors, the system has certainly spawned the growth of automobile and truck manufacturing and, with it, a certain independence from railroad routes.
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