When you need to lift 3200 tons, you need a big crane.
Something like the one the Belgian company Sarens recently had transported from a job in Chandler, Arizona to Shanghai, China. I was pleased to asked to photograph the process of it being loaded, and frankly, happy to see how such things work.
That’s one of the perks of being a photographer. I just wish someone would pay me to photograph the crane once it is reassembled in Shanghai.
First it was taken apart — 400 pieces — and moved by truck to the Port of Hueneme (wa-KNEE-me), a small port in Ventura County. The port moves lots of things, cars and fresh fruit to name just two.
The port was built in the 1930s by farmers from all over Ventura County seeking a way to get their crops to market. They petitioned the federal government for loans and grants but were turned down. So they raised the funds themselves and built the port — just in time for WWII. At which point the federal government said, “Thank you very much, it’s ours now.”
Much of the war materiel for the Pacific war passed through the port. Today the US Navy still occupies a large part of the original port and operates a naval base near by.