Last year I was walking across the catwalk with a friend who suddenly said, “My dad built this bridge.” I thought he was kidding, but nope, Elwood Zornes did indeed help build that bridge 30 years ago and a whole lot of other structures we take for granted in cities across the U.S.A., and now his son, Terry (TZ), hangs off those same beams rigging ropes for the crowds of participants who want to ride the ropes for the day each October during Bridge Day.

Of course, we have all seen the famous pictures of the men eating lunch on the steel beam hundreds of feet in the air, but until I actually walked out on those same beams, I wasn’t able to actualize how casual they were acting over what really is a very precarious situation. For the most part, they had no protection, nothing much from keeping them from falling and not a whole lot of safety regulations. Nowadays, people have a fit if a person doesn’t safety in during every second they are above the ground under the bridge, and that’s the way it should be.

It sort of makes me proud to be a part of an event that so aptly commemorates their work.