The Gerald Desmond Bridge was built in Long Beach in the 1960s.

It’s one of the ways you can get from the Port of Long Beach to downtown Long Beach. It also connects Los Angeles to downtown Long Beach. Nowadays, cargo ships are bigger though, and traffic has only increased, so a construction project is underway to replace the entire bridge.

Juan Jimenez is part of the bridge construction crew. He rarely has a moment to spare.

He's worked in construction since the 1980s. He started right after he graduated high school. He’s learned some impressive skills, like how to maneuver a forklift.

It's been said that an expert forklift operator can flip a quarter with one. Jimenez can definitely flip a wooden pallet.

All of his experience has made Jimenez one of the leaders on the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement project. It’s a huge undertaking. It won’t be finished for at least another year.

They’re building it right next to the old one, which will remain open until the new one is ready.

“When you’re driving by you say ‘Hey, I built that bridge, you know I was doing this, I was doing that,’ so it feels real good,” said Jimenez.

Pat Pettit sees the traffic and construction from the bridge every day. Like Jimenez, she knows something about pride. Several generations of her family worked at sea. She herself used to work at the Port of Long Beach.

Now Pettit helps run the International Seafarer’s Center, a place for sailors to get food and help when they are far from home. It is one of the last places still standing in the shadow of the Gerald Desmond Bridge.

When construction started they thought about moving, but even with the detours and bottlenecks things haven’t been so bad.

“Even if they’re blocked off they let me get out. They manage to let me get out,” said Pettit.

Pettit has had a few years to get used to all the work going on and she will be happy when it’s finished.

The new bridge will be taller and wider than the old one. Based on government numbers, nearly 15 percent of the nation’s waterborne cargo is trucked across the old bridge.

It’ll be at least a year until Jimenez can drive with his daughters across the bridge and point out what he helped create.

He's looking forward to it.