Ever heard the saying “…take a long walk down a short pier”?  It’s a clever, but not very nice way to tell someone to go jump in a lake. Recently, on a visit to a customer’s job site, this saying came immediately to mind.

I happened to be walking on a pier jutting out into Lake Michigan, almost a quarter of a mile out into a sometimes very turbulent body of water. This pier, forming the entry and northern breakwater for the harbor of Saint Joseph, Mich., is home to a pair of working lighthouses. This important navigational aid is maintained by the State of Michigan and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Atop the pier - extending out from the shore - is a 14-foot-tall iron walkway, no longer in use since the automation of the light. This old, elevated iron man-walk stretches from the sandy shore to both the larger, inner lighthouse, and the outer, smaller lighthouse at the pier’s end. (See image #1)Thankfully, we only walked as far as the end of this pier, but it was clear something major was taking place.