October 9, 1866 - Warren P. Miller, of
San Francisco, CA, received a patent for "Saw Teeth" ("...saw-tooth...that it
can be cheaply and perfectly made; a tooth that can be made in duplicate with
perfect accuracy; and being adjusted without use of a forge; a tooth that is
strong, self-attaching, has plenty of room for the chip, and will not choke or
clog with the dust"); September 1, 1868 - received a second patent
for "Saw Teeth" ("Mode of Attaching Teeth to Saws"); 1869 - blade
patents, manufacturing rights acquired by R. Hoe & Co.
1868 - John Augustus McNear
purchased property n San Rafael, CA from the estate of Timoteo Murphy (granted
22,000 acres of land at San Rafael, the ranchos of Las Gallinas, San Pedro, and
Santa Margarita in 1844); 1898 - with Erskine B. McNear (son)
built large brick manufacturing plant along point San Pedro, San Pablo Bay (most
valuable clay in state for manufacture of brick); founded McNear Brick Company;
2005 - Jeff McNear, president, fourth generation owner;
California's oldest manufacturer of brick.
1888 -
Charles Lindgren, James Boyd, Frank Sharples founded Boyd, Sharples &
Lindgren in Los Angeles as brick masons, contractors; July 1889
- out of business; Lindgren helped to reconstruct Bakersfield, CA after
fire; 1900 - formed partnership with Berkeley engineer
Lewis Hicks expert in steel-reinforced concrete construction; formed
Lindgren Hicks; 1908 - partnership ended; formed C. J.
Lindgren Co.; hired Alfred Bingham Swinerton as estimator; incorporated
in State of California; 1911 -
shareholder, member of Lindgren's board of directors; 1913
- named vice-president (Lindgren died); built French Pavilion,
Exposition Auditorium for Pan Pacific International Exposition, San
Francisco Public Library, Southern Pacific Building, Camp Fremont (San
Mateo), Pacific Telephone and Telegraph building, Francis Drake Hotel;
1923 - name changed to Lindgren & Swinerton, Inc.;
1929 - 92nd company out of some 28,000 to apply for licenses
(required by new law passed by California legislature); retains license
number 92 to present day; failed bids for Boulder Dam, Golden Gate
Bridge; 1942 - became general partnership called Swinerton
& Walberg; May 1963 - William Swinerton (son) named
president; 1976 - became 100 percent employee-owned; 1996 - Swinerton group organized under umbrella company
Swinerton Inc.; 2000 - revenues over $1 billion.
William Swinerton- Swinerton Inc. (http://california.construction. com/
images/0410_B_Swinerton.jpg)
1895 - Russell Hinton began his
career as a desk polisher in San Francisco; 1978 - Bob Mengarelli,
former sales representative for Russell Hinton Company, became sole owner,
President; grew into full service, premier painting, decorating firm; 1985
- added drywall division (drywall, metal framing, rocking, taping for interior
tenant improvements).
1898 - Warren A. Bechtel (25) worked
on railroad in Oklahoma Territory; operated mule-drawn sled used in railroad
grading work; spring 1904 -settled in Oakland as superintendent
for E. B. and A. L. Stone company in charge of building Richmond Belt Railroad,
extension of Santa Fe Railroad line into Oakland; 1906 - became
independent subcontractor, landed first construction subcontract for Western
Pacific Railroad in California; rented, bought first steam shovel; 1909
- founded W. A. Bechtel Co.; won first prime contract—grading site of
Western Pacific’s Oroville, California, station on Oakland–Salt Lake City line;
1910 - won subcontract for two sections (Natron, OR) of Southern
Pacific $39 million project to ease grades, smooth curves on California-Oregon
line; formed partnership with Wattis brothers (Utah Construction Co. in Salt
Lake City); 1919 - won first road-building contract (first
California contract issued by U.S. Bureau of Public Roads); 1925 -
incorporated (brother, sons as officers); one of largest, most respected
construction firms in West; diversified into highway construction, oil and gas
production, transportation; formed partnership with Henry Kaiser; 1926
- completed first dam; 1929 - pipeline construction in partnership
with Silas Palmer for PG&E; March 3, 1931 - won Hoover Dam project
(as part of Six Companies, Inc. consortium) with bid of $48,890,955 ($24,000
more than cost calculated by Bureau of Reclamation engineers); 1933
- Steve Bechtel Sr. (son) named president; formed Bridge Builders, Inc., with
Henry Kaiser, to construct eastern portion of Oakland Bay Bridge (completed in
1936); 1936 - company reorganized; 1937 -
Bechtel-McCone-Parsons Corp. formed; moved into engineering, built first
refinery for Standard Oil of California; 1941 - 11 refineries
completed or under way; 1940 - won order from U. S. Navy for 60
C-1 cargo ships (last of 560 ships launched October 27, 1945); 1945
- first of many jobs for Southern California Edison; 1958 - had
worked on 2,000 projects in 40 states, in 30 countries on 6 continents;
1960 - Stephen D. Bechtel Jr. (35, grandson) named president; 1968
- had worked on 27 nuclear-fueled generating units, backlog lasted more
than 15 years (40% of all nuclear work in United States, half nuclear plants in
developing countries by mid-1980s); new era for metals industries; 1967 - 22
hotels completed or under construction in 14 countries as result of arrangement
with Pan American World Airways Inter-Continental subsidiary); 1961
- Bay Area Rapid Transit District approved Bay Area Rapid Transit system plans
(largest, most advanced rapid-transit project ever undertaken; 1969
- around 14,000 employees, about 100 major projects in 60 countries; June
2, 1974 - Saudi government signed contract for Bechtel to oversee
long-range industrialization program on behalf of kingdom; December 31,
1975 - company at work on 119 major projects in some 2 dozen countries
with estimated value of $40 billion (according to Fortune magazine); 20-year
growth rate of 10 to 20%/year; June 24, 1976 - signed 20-year
program management services agreement with Saudi government for development of
Jubail region; 1975 - George Shultz named president leftin 1982); 1979
- non-construction activities (project management, engineering, construction
management accounted for two-thirds of revenues, up from 40% in 1970);
1980 - $11.3 billion in new bookings (highest ever), 132 major projects
in 20 countries; 1981 - Bechtel Group, Inc., holding company,
formed; May 27, 1986 - organization-wide realignment; 1989
- Riley P. Bechtel (great grandson, 4th generation) named president; 1989
- new work booked climbed to $5.4 billion, six-year high; 1992 - revenues
reached eight-year high of $7.8 billion; mid-1992 - continuous
improvement model supplemented with corporate business model comprising seven
critical processes; 1990s - restructured operations along regional
lines, in part to bring decision-making closer to growing number of
international customers; 2001 - created industry-specific global
business units capable of managing worldwide operations in key industries; more
than 22,000 projects in 140 nations over 110 years.
Warren A. Bechtel -
Bechtel Corporation (http://www.emporia.edu/ business/kbhf/
photos/bechtel.gif)
1898 - Ed Haas established Haas Construction Company; 1901 - awarded contract to dredge channel through bar off Pearl Harbor; 1920s-1930s - handled large-scale reclamation, pipeline projects (irrigation, flood control); 1940s - moved into general construction: ship repair facilities, aircraft hangars, dormitories, military bases; 1950s - Robert Haynie became partner; renamed Haas & Haynie; became real estate developer as well as builder; 1970s - developed, constructed, leased commercial and hotel properties; 1980 - Paul Fay joined company; became principal, CEO; exited construction business; focused on land development, construction management; premier developer of high-end resort, residential communities.
January 5, 1933
- Work on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge began on the Marin County
side; first in the U.S. to have piers built in open ocean; first to span
the outer mouth of a major ocean harbor; chief engineer was Joseph
Strauss; length of the main structure of the bridge is 8,940-ft, with
towers rising 746-ft above the water and a minimum clearance of 220
feet.
November 12, 1936
- The Oakland Bay Bridge opened.
May 27, 1937
- The Golden Gate Bridge, connecting San Francisco and Marin County,
California, opened to pedestrian traffic; May 28, 1937 -
opened to vehicular traffic when President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed
a telegraph key in the White House to announce the event to the world.
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(Consolidated Rock Products), Scott J. Wilcott (2001). Through
Many Dangers, Toils and Snares: The Story of Consolidated Rock
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(Jacobs Engineering Group), Joseph J. Jacobs (1991).
The Anatomy
of an Entrepreneur: Family, Culture, and Ethics. (San Francisco, CA:
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(Pacific Bridge Company), R. Bruce Way (1996).The Life and
Careers of William Henry Gorrill, 1841-1874. (Lanham, MD:
University Press of America, 233 p.). Gorrill, William Henry,
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(Science Applications International Corporation), Ed. Stan Burns
(1999).SAIC:
The First Thirty Years. (Del Mar, CA: Tehabi Books, 167 p.).
Science Applications International Corporation; Engineering
firms--United States--History.
(Whiting-Mead Company), Perry Whiting (1930).
Autobiography of Perry Whiting, Pioneer Building Material Merchant of
Los Angeles. (Los Angeles, CA: Printed by Smith-Barnes
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Douglas Frantz (1993).From the Ground Up: The Business of
Building in the Age of Money. (Berkeley, CA: University of
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