A historical society dedicated to the ironworkers, rebar men, steel erectors, and carpenters who raised the Pacific Northwest — preserving their work, their families, and their stories before they're lost.
Washington wasn't built by one company. It was built by thousands of tradesmen.
Seattle Steel preserves and honors the men and women of the building trades — the dam crews and ironworkers, the rebar and fabrication shops, the erectors and carpenters whose work still holds the region up — and the union halls (Ironworkers Locals 86, 14 & 29, and the Carpenters) that trained and organized them. We collect their photographs, their projects, and their first-hand accounts, so the people behind the skyline are never forgotten.
From the docks to the high steel — one union chain raised this city: the Longshoremen (ILWU 19 & 23) unloaded it, the Teamsters (Local 174) hauled it, and the Ironworkers (86 · 14 · 29) and Carpenters (Local 30) built it.
The structural steel and the men who walk it — connectors, raising gangs, the high steel.
Rebar tied by hand — the hidden lattice inside every wall, column, and span.
Cranes, beams, and bolt-ups — raising the frame that everything else hangs on.
Framing to finish — the craft that turns a structure into a place.
We document the shops and the families who staffed them across generations. The following are among the many that built the region — recorded here with gratitude, not as a claim of sole credit.
Steel fabrication out of the Auburn Valley — feeding the region's frames and crews.
An Auburn-Valley reinforcing house — the rebar inside the region's concrete, tied a bar at a time.
Raising gangs and erectors who stood the steel on projects across the Sound.
Every one of these took thousands of hands. We're here to remember them — and to honor that the families still in the trade today are carrying something a century old.
Worked the trade, or had family who did? Send us the names, the projects, the photographs. Every account adds to the record.
Submit to the archive →Add an ironworker, rebar man, erector, or carpenter to the honor roll — so their work is remembered by name.
Add a name →The work didn't stop. A new generation is hiring and building right now — carrying the same craft forward.
See it carried on →Three generations in the Seattle trades — and the reason this society exists. The history lives here; the work continues there.
Visit Bay Brothers' ConstructionThe name Seattle knew — and the reason this work exists. We remember him, and through him, every hand that built this city.
