A tugboat weighing one million pounds slowly moved through the streets of Seattle. The boat, destined for the Ballard Locks, sat on a massive 50-axel trailer that stretched an entire city block. Its gray hull and canary yellow wheelhouse dwarfed the workers on either side who helped its progress from the Seattle ship-building facility toward the water. The slow and steady journey took three days.

This was an astounding site for anyone who happened to witness it. But for the team at crane and rigging company NessCampbell, it was just another day on the job.

“One of our mottos is: if it can be moved, then we can get it done,” says Kasey Steendam, NessCampbell marketing director. For the crane and rigging operators, every day is a new challenge—literally. For the past 75 years, people have been calling up NessCampbell to work on wild, complicated, and high stakes projects. One day a crew is tasked with installing massive engraved boulders outside the Oregon State Capitol, the next, a team is very carefully placing an old Boeing 747 between two Seattle apartment buildings.

Campbell Cranes was founded in Portland in 1947, Ness was founded in Seattle soon after. As both cities grew, the crane and rigging companies grew with them, helping construct some of the most iconic buildings in the Pacific Northwest. Cranes from Campbell and Ness placed the support structures of the Space Needle, the steel beams of local stadiums, and, most recently, were an essential part of constructing the forest-inspired renovation of the Portland airport. The companies joined forces in the early 2000s and NessCampbell is now the largest crane operator in the Pacific Northwest with over 300 employees.

The company does small projects—like lifting a hot tub into a backyard—but the crane and rigging crews mostly focus on the big logistical problems involved in construction, the nitty gritty issues that people might not even notice once the job is done. In November 2025, the company used a 500-foot-tall crane to lift heating and air conditioning units into a new 28-story highrise in Portland’s Pearl District. To give the enormous crane enough space, the crew had to close down three whole city blocks.  “It was either that or helicopter the units on top of the roof,” says Steendam. “The real heroes are our field personnel, the iron workers, the operators, the oilers, and everyone in between.” NessCampbell does lots of workforce development, recruiting apprentices from local high schools and offering them a path to membership in the pipe fitters, the iron workers, or operators union. “They start from the bottom and they work all the way to the top,” says Steendam.

Joelson Moon is a 21-year-old aspiring crane operator who’s in NessCampbell’s pre-apprenticeship program. He was so dead-set on getting a foot in the door with an apprenticeship that could lead to union work that he called his current boss every day for four weeks, asking if there were any openings. “I knew I needed something good and solid,” says Moon. “It was an opportunity right in front of me, and I knew what it could bring and the life it could give me.” While many people Moon’s age are sleeping off hangovers, he heads to the yard at 6am, five days a week, helping crews prep for whatever jobs come their way.  But he doesn’t mind the early hours, he’s excited to learn everything he possibly can.  “It's never really like, ‘Oh, I have to go into work. It's more of, like, ‘Hey, I get to work today!’ Every day is something new. You're constantly running around.”

Someone else showing up at 6am is Chris Abram, a yard manager who started working at NessCampbell when he was 24 and has stayed for the last 15 years. He works unloading equipment from trucks returning from jobs and packing up trucks heading out to new work. “We mentor each other, we’ve got each other’s back. You’ve got to share information, learn new stuff every day,” he says. While the job is heavy work, Abram hopes to keep doing it all the way until he retires. When he sees a building project that he was part of, it’s a special feeling. “I feel pride, understanding that I got to be part of building that infrastructure.” 

Just nine months into his apprenticeship, Moon is learning how to stay in shape, keep learning, and embrace each day’s new challenges—no matter how wild that day’s job is. “This job keeps you in check: mind, body, health. Every day it's tough. It's not for the faint of heart. It's not for everybody. But if you're in it, you learn to love it.”