A group of workers with a pile driver and heavy equipment, working on the beach in Santa Monica, California. The man third from right is Felix Puertas, the grandfather of Ernest Marquez. There is a building in the background with a sign that says "Groceries" and women are sitting under the porch at a table. With printed advertisement with two photographs of young women in bathing suits on verso: "These maidens fair, with chestnut hair, had their photos taken at the Pacific Photo Gallery, on the Beach near the Arcadia Pavilion ... H.F. Rile, Artist, Santa Monica, Cal." Title devised by cataloger. Date and identification from Ernest Marquez in 2015, who wrote: "The location was between the Santa Monica Pier and the Ocean Park Pier, looking north toward Ocean Park. There was a big storm in 1903 that washed out the old wooden boardwalk. It appears the workers are driving piles into the sand to replace the old boardwalk with a cement one. The vertical structure is a pile driver. The workers pull a heavy weight up and let it go. It falls on top of the pile and drives it into the ground. One of the men working there is my grandfather, Felix Puertas (my mother’s father). He is the third man from right, directly under the 'E' of the sign that says GROCERIES. He worked for the company that made sidewalks in Santa Monica at that time."
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