From the moment the project started, the next generation looked on. Jim Jr., a small figure with a wide-brimmed hat, sat on Foreman Mike Gilmore’s steady horse, Mack. The deafening hiss and clank of the steam shovel and other modern machinery didn’t bother Mack. The horse had seen a lot of construction for the past three years on every road job contracted by Goodfellow Bros. during that time.

Boy and horse seemed to form a bridge across time, a link to a previous era when the original “teamsters” were the men taking care of the horses, which hauled the earth-moving equipment. And the railroad foremen, called “riding bosses,” traveled alongside miles of rail to inspect the work. Riding the only horse left out there, Jim Jr. would help see Goodfellow Bros. through the twentieth century.