Reviews for The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge

The average rating for The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-04-13 00:00:00 Christy Black I first became interested in the story behind the design and building of the Brooklyn Bridge a few years ago when I watched the TV documentary 'New York' by Ric Burns. In one of the episodes it focused on this land-and-river-mark - on its novelty, its innovations and the human tragedy that it also brought about. Around that time also I read, and was fascinated by, David McCullough's The Path Between the Seas. I have therefore wanted to read this book for several years. I have to acknowledge, though, that though I have enjoyed greatly learning more about this historical episode of human ingenuity, McCullough's treatment was too good for me. I have felt that I was facing far too large a load of information when reading it. The descriptions of technical details were often over my head. As I am a visual person, I needed more graphs than textual accounts, so I resorted to the web for additional videos, graphs and drawings. I enjoyed the way McCullough puts the building of the bridge in the context of similar and earlier engineering feats. There are so many aspects in the structure of this bridge, that one cannot say that it is "The First" except in a few of its characteristics. The building took from 1869 to 1883, so it is to be expected that during the fourteen years many incidents happened; most were related to the Brooklyn enterprise directly and some indirectly, as it happened with the tragedy of the Tay Bridge disaster in Scotland in 1879. The most fascinating part of the construction was the design and sinking of the two huge 'caissons'; structures that were different and had to be dealt with differently at either side, the Brooklyn and the Manhattan sides; the latter having to go a great deal deeper than the former. Also over my head went the stories of the local politics - both at the city level and at the corporate level. These sections I scanned for the most part except for a couple of episodes. Most fascinating of all was the account around the highly corrupt Boss Tweed, politician and significant landowner, and his fall after the Orange Riot of 1871. The most engaging aspect was however the human. Learning about the outstanding Roebling family - the father, the son, the other sons, and particularly the wife of the son - is sufficient for recommending the book. In particular Washington Roebling (1837-1927), the eldest son, stands out. Not just for what he did - he was right in that we should consider him as the maker of the bridge and not his father - but also for his personality. Men like him are enigmatic. How can one accumulate exactly the right qualities that are required when one's role is extremely difficult? With his health severely damaged from an early age, he however outlived them all. May be his life was suspended from an invisible thread of supernatural steel. And he married the right woman. Emily Warren Roebling (1843-1903) comes across as the angel of steel, also wonderfully suspended over the construction of the bridge taking over the responsibilities of the Chief Engineer when her husband became too weak. As with the Panama story - when not just engineering but a biological and medical obstacle had to be solved, malaria - also here the physiological problem made the building project more complicated. The effects on the human body when going down to great depths were not understood. Some investigation on the effects on people when submerging had been done in France but the new and greater depths required in the sinking and reinforcement of the Brooklyn Bridge 'caissons' was occasioning the little understood 'Bends' that took several lives. Indeed, the too fast decompression that the workers endured is also what severely damaged the health of Washington Roebling himself. This is a great read even if for some readers McCullough's astounding command of data and fastidiousness in his narration can leave as if one had sunk in one of the Caissons. But when closing the book one is certainly going to feel differently when crossing this marvelous bridge. I understand there is a documentary by Ken Burns on this Bridge, solidly based on this book, but I have not seen it. This is the one I have:

Review # 2 was written on 2016-11-17 00:00:00 Pedro Reboredo Reboredo If you haven't read a book by David McCullough you are missing a VERY good author. He writes non-fiction. He works in collaboration with a large staff. Some people may call that cheating, but I don't care b/c everything he writes is thoroughly investigated, interesting and expressed with flair. His books are never dry, never boring. He knows what to put in and what to leave out. Here he writes about the Brooklyn Bridge! How in the world can you write about a bridge and make it fascinating? He has succeeded. Again! The book covers all the details related to the making of the Brooklyn Bridge, from conception to completion. It is also a biography of two amazing people, John Augustus Roebling (1806-1869), a German immigrant and engineer who conceived of and designed the bridge, and his son Washington Augustus Roebling (1837-1926) who was the chief engineer during the bridge's construction from 1869-1883. It is also about Emily Warren Roebling, Washington's first wife; she played an essential role in the making of the bridge! It is a book about the two cities, New York City and Brooklyn, which came to be linked by the creation of the bridge. It is about the political corruption of the era. I am sure you've heard of the shenanigans of Tammany Hall, well here they are again. People that really get you mad! It is about how the bridge forever changed New York City. It was a time of great innovation played out and shaped by the people of this great metropolis. The bigwigs, the politicians, the business men, the artisans, the immigrants, the small people and the big, the dreamers and the workers. Read this book to meet Washington Roebling! His engagement is utterly inspirational. When mistakes were made he never shirked his responsibility and he wanted the Board of Trustees to shoulder their responsibility too. In making a solid foundation for the bridge, workers excavated the riverbed using massive wooden boxes called caissons. These airtight chambers were pressed to the river's floor by mammoth granite blocks; pressurized air was pumped in to keep water and rubble out. Workers succumbed to what is today known as "caisson disease", "decompression sickness" or "the bends": joint pain, numbness, paralysis, convulsions and sometimes death. Very little of this was understood then. In 1870 Washington Roebling worked from within a caisson to extinguish a fire that had broken out. Working often alongside men in the caissons he too came to suffer from the disease, as well as other nervous ailments. I would have appreciated a more in-depth discussion of his medical problems resulting from "decompression sickness". Probably he also suffered from what is known as neurasthenia and perhaps secondary drug addiction. Due to his illnesses he worked in close corroboration with his wife holding his position as chief engineer "in absentia"! That he could later in 1921 become president of John A. Roebling's Sons Company at age 84 is hard to comprehend! It is for this reason I would have liked a fuller understanding of what afflicted him! I did have trouble sometimes understanding the minute and detailed description of the component parts of the bridge construction. Yet I never felt that even the details which I didn't completely understand should be removed. A picture says simply what a thousand words try to explain. I did look in internet for detailed drawings but you need more than just a diagram. What you really need is someone pointing out the respective parts of the diagram to fully understand. Listening and listening and still not completely understanding was frustrating to me. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Nelson Runger. He does a totally fantastic job. He reads slowly. He reads clearly. He reads with feeling. When the bridge is completed, the author's lines and Runger's intonation allows one to appreciate the beauty and the magnificence of what had been created. There was a huge celebration with firecrackers, with bells tolling, whistles shrilling, firecrackers, tugs tooting, children scrambling and huge crowds marveling at the spectacle! I felt like I was there. When the electric lights of the bridge were first illuminated I could feel the wonder of the lights and the two dark stone towers, along with the thousands that watched. An epilog completes the book so you know what happens to the central characters in the years after the bridge is completed.