• the Sheet Metal Workers International Association Local 28 in New York City negotiated the first pension plan in the construction industry?
• the Vincent Thomas Bridge (pictured) was named after Vincent Thomas, a California State Assembly politician, in honor of his foresight and work during its construction?
• according to government records in 2006, more than a third of the total number of Chinese residents in Botswana worked in the construction business?
• construction for the bobsleigh, luge, and track to be used for the 2014 Winter Olympics has been delayed due to high downhill grades and location near a World Heritage Site, including near an endangered species of brown bear?

Facts on topics related to Construction

Civil engineering

• civil engineer Robert Wynne-Edwards was the first president of the Institution of Civil Engineers to be elected while still working as a contractor?
• Derek Gardner became a leading British painter of marine subjects after retiring from a civil engineering career due to deafness?
• Reginald H. Thomson, the civil engineer responsible for "virtually all of Seattle's infrastructure", had a Ph.D. in philosophy?
• William Rich Hutton accompanied Edward Ord on an expedition to the Pueblo of Los Angeles in 1849 before returning east to work as a civil engineer on projects including the Washington Bridge?
• after a massive expansion program in the 1980s, Lavalin's corporate bankers forced it to merge with the rival SNC Group, forming one of the largest civil engineering firms in the world?
• although he has composed music for over 20 video games and conducts the Video Games Live concert series, Jack Wall has a degree in civil engineering?
• despite losing his right arm and having no formal civil engineering education, Henry Perrine Baldwin (pictured) oversaw a pioneering sugarcane irrigation system on the Hawaiian island of Maui in 1876?

Engineer

• architect Ivan Rerberg despised the title of architect, and preferred to sign his work "Engineer Rerberg"?
• architect/engineer Sir Owen Williams returned part of his design fee for the Dollis Hill Synagogue because the congregation was unhappy with the finished structure?
• Dumas House (pictured), a government office building in Perth, Western Australia, is named in honour of engineer and public servant Sir Russell John Dumas?
• English headmistress Olive Willis founded Downe House School, where her chauffeur-architect-engineer slept in her bathroom?
• Brutus de Villeroi was a French engineer who created the USS Alligator, the U.S. Navy's first submarine, in 1862?
• Mercedes Reaves, a Puerto Rican research engineer and scientist, is responsible for the design of a viable, full-scale solar sail at the NASA Langley Research Center?
• American engineer Elmer William Engstrom was involved in the development of television by RCA in the 1930s?
• English engineer Roy Lunn was responsible for the development of the Ford Mustang I and the first American 4WD cars?
• a general contractor makes submittals which are required by the architect and engineer for verification that correct products will be installed in a construction project?
• a shop drawing is not created by the architect or the engineer, but by the fabricator?

Electrical engineering

• Ming Hsieh, whose parents were persecuted under the Cultural Revolution, began learning electrical engineering from his father and went on to develop biometric technology that made him one of the richest people in the world?
• his son's infection with polio in 1930 led electrical engineer Reinhold Rudenberg to develop an electron microscope as a tool to study the poliovirus?
• in electrical engineering, a Smith chart is a common way of graphing the amount of a signal reflected by a telephone line?