Swing on, Hebron!

When Tim O'Callaghan co-chaired the Hebron, Nebraska, Fourth of July Committee, he wanted to make sure it was a memorable celebration.

So, despite the negative comments of a few naysayers, he asked John Davis, an engineer at Reinke Irrigation Co., to draw up some plans for the world's largest porch swing. Once the plans were in hand, he commissioned his father, Paul, to build the giant swing's seat.

A section of center pivot provided the top girder for the swing. Lyle Arnold, a local welder, did the necessary cutting and welding to set it firmly on the ground at the correct height, and added brackets to mount the chains for the swing.

In total, about 50 people had a hand in getting the swing together and erected in the town's Roosevelt Park just in time for celebration.

The swing seat itself is 32 ft. long and will hold as many as 32 children, if they're small and sit close together. Sixteen adults can fit easily.

O'Callaghan says the original swing his father built for the Fourth of July celebration was made of treated pine lumber and then painted. The weight of the swing caused a lot of wear around the bolts that held it together.

So the heavy wooden swing was taken down and replaced with a wooden swing on a lighter-weight frame built from 1- in. square steel tubing. "Without all the wood for bracing and strength, the swing is lighter and sturdier, too," O'Callaghan says. "With the volunteer labor and materials provided by Reinke's, the original swing cost us very little to construct," O'Callaghan says. "It got the town of Hebron into the Guinness Book of World Records for having the world's largest swing."