Railroad and Shipping

William Hesthal

Another of the "young Turks" among the artists, Hesthal here contrasts two vital transportation industries - one recovering, the other suffering. On the left, we see workers cleaning up disused railroad tracks preparing for the return of freight from the shuttered shipping industry shown on the right. There, we see a single forlorn sailor in front of docks where there is no activity — just as it was during the first half of 1934. In the background upper right is the Third Street Bridge, a "bascule" drawbridge that had just been completed by Joseph Strauss, who was soon to design the far different Golden Gate Bridge. (The bridge still exists, just south of AT&T Park.) Above the window we see a railroad trestle in true perspective-breaking one of Rivera's rules, and right under the eyes of Stackpole, one of Rivera's closest confidantes. Hesthal claimed it was youthful exuberance that led him to break the rules. Also in the window is one of several oil cans that appear in the various works symbolic of how industry needed a little lubrication from the New Deal to get restarted.