CAMPBELL, Ohio – This is a small town of only 8,325 people, but it has 12 bridge painting companies – all of them Greek-American owned – proud of a heritage of maintaining bridges across the country, now featured in a documentary about their work, entitled Bridge Brothers.
The workers are from different ethnicities and countries: Greek, Brazilian, from New Jersey and Florida and across the country but they have a job akin to being a steelworker high on a skyscraper, but with painting equipment in hand, with the water far below to remind them of where they are.
One of the companies, Corcon, produced the 100-minute film about the work the painters do while trying not to look down, detailing the heritage of the companies.
CEO Lou Lyras is a first generation Greek American. He was born, raised, and still lives in Campbell. His company has become one of the nation’s leading painters of bridges, which led him to produce the documentary, WKNB.com reported on one of Campbell’s own.
He said people driving by don’t see what’s under the curtains being put up for the massive preparatory work that includes cleaning before the first coat is put on to protect the steel from the ravages of weather, wind and water.
“They see the curtains up, but they don’t know. You have no idea what is inside or what it takes. That is why I wanted to do the documentary,” Lyras said. “That is far and above the hardest painting that our painters anywhere in the union do is industrial painting and bridges.”
Bridge Brothers was shot during the painting of two Philadelphia bridges – the Walt Whitman and Commodore Barry and shows the grunge work of decking, tarping, and recycling equipment creating an enclosed area where the deleading, sandblasting and painting occurs. Lyras said the setup alone for the tower on the Walt Whitman Bridge took months.
“Three to four months to set it up and do the painting and cleaning in less than a month. Then, it will take another month and a half to take it down,” Lyras said.
Bridge Brothers shows the lives of the men and women who paint the bridges, in dangerous conditions and with a special kind of dedication.
“If you’re not cutting yourself or bruising yourself every day then you are not doing something right,” Lyras said. “Mostly we like to say everyone who works on a bridge has to be a little bit crazy.”
An excerpt hints at the story:
“As they preserve America’s bridges they also battle Mother Nature – and each other – racing against the clock to get work done under the exacting eye of their foreman and company bosses. They are also forced to confront the personal toll of this work on their family life back home – whether home is New Jersey or Florida; Brazil or Greece. They may not be related by blood but they are brothers nonetheless. Bridge Brothers.”
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