Börje Lundvall

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The Halfway to Hell Club

"I could hear faint baby-like cries. ... The net looked like a sinking raft with the tiny men entangled and trying to get free. ... Some drifted out of the Gate and out of sight," said Tex Lester, a steelworker who sat atop the south tower on February 17, 1937, witnessing the deadliest day in the history of the Golden Gate Bridge, and even to this day, the worst ever in the history of bridge construction. Before the accident, the safety net had saved the lives of nineteen workers from a certain death, a lucky elite party calling themselves the "Halfway to Hell Club." Charles Lindros, a thirty-year-old Swedish immigrant, was one of the men killed in the accident. This book tells the epic story of his origins in Sweden, his journey to America, and his whereabouts and life in the Humboldt County redwoods and San Francisco. The book touches on the stories of all the victims. Of the fourteen men there were three immigrants from Sweden, two from Ireland, and one from Denmark. The other eight men came from the American heartland. These were the forlorn men that never made it to the Club. The story weaves together with the author’s own field trips to California and adventures tracing his Great-uncle Lindros’s footsteps. The stage is set against the backdrop of the dramatic events of America’s history in the twenties and thirties that shaped California and laid the foundation for stellar economic growth for decades to come.