Compass Ironworks Vacation Day
The entire team at compass Ironworks spent a day in Washington DC for a company vacation. The day started bright and early at 7:00 AM at the Lincoln Memorial. While climbing up the steps, we inspected the bronze handrails. We looked at the welds and the stair railing. We took the time to review the different bronze railing components and materials. Then, we went into the Lincoln Memorial itself to view Abraham Lincoln, and read his famous words that he gave Gettysburg address and his second inauguration.
Then, we watched a company of marines do some drills in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Next, we walked up past the reflecting pool, the World War 2 memorial, and the Washington Monument.
After that, we headed for the White House. We spent some time evaluating the new iron fence around the White House. The new wrought iron fence is 12 feet tall and has approximately 2″ diameter pickets topped with a finial. Another interesting element of the new iron fence was that the top horizontal bar had cascading heights of nail points attached to the top. The iron fence posts were approximately 3″ in diameter and were 10 foot on center.
We also spent some time evaluating the iron gates to the White House. The engineers designed these gates as crash resistant. The driveway gate frame appeared to be 2″ X 4″ solid and featured some awesome welding techniques in the corners. It appeared to have as many as nine passes in one single weld area. Another part of the iron gate that we thoroughly inspected was the heavy duty gate hinges. The hingese were specifically designed for crash resistance as well. We were so curious that the Secret Service official started eyeing us suspiciously.
We then continued on to check out the wrought iron fence at the Army-Navy building. Then, we continued on to walk to Capitol Hill and around the pool. To finish our vacation day we headed to the Air and Space museum, the Holocaust Museum, and then to the American History Museum. The bus then picked us up at 5:30 and we headed to Golden Corral for a delicious supper. After a full day of fun we got back to our shop shortly after 10:00 PM feeling refreshed and ready to get back to work the next day!
