Richmond, California - Rosie the Riveter Memorial

Before exiting the interstate at the misleading sign promising a "Rosie the Riveter Memorial," prepare to be disappointed. You will not see a muscled, 40-ft.-tall version of the iconic World War II home front poster gal. What you will see is a skeletal, abstract suggestion of a "ship" -- Richmond's shipyards were where many women workers toiled for victory. The full name is the "Rosie the Riveter Memorial: Honoring American Women's Labor During WWII."

The most prominent section -- an upside-down "stern" -- looks from a distance like a play structure for children (perhaps tough children, future Rosies, who would enjoy scrambling up metal struts). There are photos incorporated into it showing shipbuilding, women welding and working, and interpretive signs.

The design, by artist Susan Schwartzenberg and environmental sculptor Cheryl Barton, was dedicated in 2000. It goes out of its way to avoid giving the patriotic public a Rosie photo op (granted, the bar may have been set unfairly high by Unconditional Surrender, a WWII crowd favorite on two coasts.). There is one gag photo possibility: you stick your torso through a narrow opening in the metal into a void -- which we are told by a park volunteer is meant to simulate the contortions riveters had to endure to reach the hull.

Along the walkway down to the "bow" of the ship, which sticks out into water, there's a timeline about the home front. A set of metal rings along the path is meant to suggest a ship smokestack.

Even imagining this nice park as a ship, though, just makes us yearn for another park that looks more like a ship (but less like an "environmental sculpture"). [RoadsideAmerica.com Team, 03/14/2009]