Located on the rugged northcoast of California, accessible only by stage and small ocean schooner, the Ft. Bragg mill by necessity had to be constructed out of the materials at hand. No brick, no mortar nor iron beams coming around the horn. Hence while Redwood was not a terrific structural wood, if you made the beams big enough, and supported them on close enough centers you could hold up just about anything. Such was the theory of the Union Mill. But for a few steel girders patched in under the headrigs, likely during a retrofit in the 50's or 60's there wasn't a steel beam in the place. The band mill, three stories high, 400 ft long housing and supporting tons of earthshaking equipment, to render huge watersoaked logs into planks and boards, was a dense, dripping, hissing forest of old growth in its own right.