BRIDGE WORK
This is the only bridge construction picture found in
grandma Kate Steppe’s things when she died. It came to son Gordon Steppe at that
time. I think our grandfather sent it to her in Staunton because he was in the
picture. I think he is the man standing on the right edge of the pier. The
silhouette is of a man with extra wide shoulders, a trait of Cleveland and son
Gordon.
Alice Mae Steppe
This picture is just one from the sets that my father
inherited, probably from grandma DePriest. I have most of two sets of pictures,
one of pier construction and one of roadbed construction. It appears that the
pictures were taken by or for Cleveland. He sent one picture to his wife and
the rest to Grandma DePriest in Rustburg who was raising his children. A couple
of the roadbed have notes on the backs to explain what is in the picture. We
know my father Lewis was working with Cleveland because he appears in one of
the pictures with a note on the back to identify him.
In the summer of 1930 Cleveland fell from the bridge.
Seventeen-year-old son Lewis watched him fall, all the way down, to his death,
on the works below.