Any thoughts why they put the 2x6s like they did? 1 story, 35 YO ranch home.
Can’t tell you the reason why they did, but I can tell you several reasons why they shouldn’t.
Because they didn’t know what they were doing.
Is that a seam or stain in the middle of the girder in #2 ?
Looks like the butt ends of a built up beam to me. (400x mag, fuzzy).
It is a built-up girder. Either (as the engineer) you specify piers or columns at centers close enough to support the breaks in the girder, or you specify larger members so that the offset joints will support the overall load. This is a contractor screw-up.
I just didn’t know why they put doubled 2x6s beneath a conventional girder. One section of the 2x6 was spliced (in the photo) and no pier was beneath the splice and it was sagging there. But other areas without splices were also sagging.