Mechanics Monument

The Mechanics Monument stands at the busy intersection of Market, Bush, and Battery Streets, defined by a group of five muscular, near-nude bronze figures straining together to operate a heavy punch press. Completed in nineteen oh one by the sculptor Douglas Tilden, the twenty-one-foot-tall work was commissioned to honor the industrialist Peter Donahue, who founded the Union Iron Works, the first heavy foundry on the Pacific Coast.