- Our next story starts with a trip to Emmett Township in Calhoun County and a one-of-a-kind park.

This park is home to five historic metal trust bridges that have been restored and preserved, making the entire area an outdoor museum.

Overseeing that process was Vern Mesler and what he started in Calhoun County has expanded far beyond the park.

- We're at Historic Bridge Park in Emmett Township, just outside of Battle Creek, Michigan.

Over time this park kind of became a little untouched, a little unloved and needed some help.

And there were some really visionary people back in the the nineties looking at restoring historic bridges.

If a municipality is getting rid of a bridge, an iron bridge, a steel bridge, that they can actually get that, get some grants, get some funding to restore those bridges and use them for for other things.

- [Narrator] Those visionaries already had possession of two bridges.

Now they needed a foreman, enter Vern Mesler.

He had the credentials, resume and the willingness to accept the task of restoring bridges fabricated in the late 1800s and erecting them in a park.

- What I used is my experience as a steel fabricator, my experience as an educator, and the first two bridges was the 20 Mile Bridge and 133rd Avenue Bridge.

They sat out beside the garage and Battle Creek.

Alongside the garage, there they sat.

- [Narrator] The team of craftsmen along with engineer Dennis Randolph, were ready to begin this process.

They had the pieces, the support of the community, and at the helm, Vern.

- First of all, I didn't know what wrought iron was and I had to learn what that, how do you repair wrought iron?

It's different than you pair steel.

The other thing was rivets.

I walked in to Dennis Randolph one day and I says, "you know, I don't wanna weld those bridges "and I don't want to put both, let's do riveting."

Great idea, Vern!

I only had one problem.

I didn't know how to rivet.

(laughs) - [Narrator] Now a quick lesson on rivets.

A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener designed to join two or more components together.

In the field, before the rivet is installed, it is heated to nearly 900 degrees Celsius.

Then it is driven into place using a pneumatic rivet or hammer.

The hammer drives the rivet against the holder-on forming a convex shaped head.

As it cools, the rivet expands locking the steel together.

- Some things in this undertaking might have seemed impossible to some people, but it never came across that way either to Vern or the engineer Dennis Randolph.

It was like this can be done.

And I think it was Vern's love of history that really led him to want to do something historically accurate about these bridges.

And that's what led him to the learning how to rivet.

You know, let's restore these using the original techniques, honoring the craftsmen who built them.

- [Narrator] And that is what Vern did.

He learned how to rivet, learning as much as he could about the process to restore the bridges the right way and honoring the craftsmen who constructed them.

Due rising cost of skilled workers needed to install rivets, welding and bolting replaced the riveting process.

Over time, the skills and knowledge of these craftsmen declined and were all but forgotten.

These bridges are their record.

(machine rumbling) (light music) - Just what the bridges represent.

They represent an untold story.

An untold story and I've been trying to tell that story, trying to find out how these, all these bridges, first of all, were built, by who built them and how were they were built, how were the parts made?

They were fabricated.

That's the, it's the craftsman's record.

And that's what I find fascinating.

And what I try to write about and talk about is how the craftsmen built these, that's the hard part.

You know, who were they and how did they develop their skills?

If you look in the library, you'll find hundreds of books on the engineers and their design of bridges, but there's not a single book written about the craftsmen worked on those bridges.

Where the written record and the bridges?

(light music continues) - Before they were just scrapped, but actually bringing 'em back and putting them to use for pedestrians.

There's a lot of memory in these bridges.

People will come here and, you know, just as we're doing maintenance on the parks, we'll talk to people that are coming here because that bridge used to be in their neighborhood and they used to go over that bridge with their mom and dad when it was a single lane bridge that had a little stop sign that you had to take turns.

So these bridges have memories and they have importance to local people.

So having it here, you know, we have people visit and really that are passionate or wanna learn how these bridges were made in the first place, 'cause it really is a lost art.

- [Narrator] The five historical bridges are an interactive experience.

Walking across the bridge, you are almost transported back in time to the communities who utilize them for decades.

The structures also stand as monuments honoring the workers, the men and women who hammered the steel and drove the rivets.

And Vern has a special request for visitors to the park.

- I want 'em to look at the parts.

I want 'em to look at the pieces.

I want 'em to look at, I wanna look at the eye bar.

I want 'em to look at the rivets.

I want 'em to look at the design of the bridge.

Okay, the parts, every part has a story.

Every bridge here has a story.

- Vern's work for Calhoun County was just the beginning.

His passion for riveting has led to workshops and demonstrations, not only in Michigan but around the country.

He was invited to demonstrate hot riveting at the 75th anniversary celebration of the Golden Gate Bridge.

It is safe to say his work has reinvigorated the craft of riveting.

- You think the best example of that is the Cut River Bridge.

The Michigan Department of Transportation chose to specify hot riveting for the Cut River Bridge Rehabilitation Project.

Which in a way is sort of unheard of, but I think that is a testament to the historic bridge park and all of the knowledge that came out of that restoration process.