The New Yankee Workshop (1989)

Season 21: Episode 24

Norm takes viewers on an adventure to Utah to witness the dismantling of a twelve-mile long railway trestle which was built at the turn of the century. Eventually progress and better engineering in the 1950s replaced this causeway, and the massive trestle wood pilings which once provided the means by which Southern Pacific was able to cross the Great Salt Lake were all but abandoned. Over years of disuse, the trestle wood, which is comprised of Douglas fir and redwood, eventually became so pickled by lake brine that its grain began to develop an unusual array of colors. Norm acquires some of this trestle wood to build his own outdoor chaise lounge design and in the process, learns quite a bit about current initiatives to harvest this unusual building material. NOTE: This is the same project as Season 10, Episode 11 with a new introduction by Norm Abram.