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Title: GREAT BRIDGE : The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough ISBN: 0-671-45711-X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 12 January, 1983 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (30 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: My Bridge
Comment: It is hard for me to be objective about this book. First off, I am a great admirer of David McCullough's histories. Second, I have published two novels which are set in New York during the mid-19th Century. But what probably makes it hardest for me to be objective is that I have walked over that bridge for my own personal pleasure so many times over the decades that I consider it an old friend. It's my bridge.
Having said all that, I can say that Mr. McCullough has written a history that is not only about a bridge and its builders, which are fascinating subjects in their own right, but it is also about what New Yorkers were thinking back then. This was still a horizontal world; the era of early skyscrapers was a few decades away. Because of this and the rapid growth in population after the Civil War, Manhattan was mostrously choked by block after block of four- and five-story tenements, warehouses and factories. The need for a reliable means to get to the vast open spaces of Brooklyn was urgent. Ironically, however, it wasn't the horizontal--the length of the bridge--which stunned the witnesses to the construction. Instead they marvelled at the height of the towers and the height of the roadway over the East River.
Not as ironic, however, were the people who didn't marvel at the bridge's beauty and the strength of its construction. They were too busy licking their lips, wringing their hands and wondering how much of the bridge's budget would make its way into their wallets. The elements of corruption, then as now, always lurked near a great public work in New York. McCullough covers this tainted side just as carefully as he reports on the glory of the growth of the bridge. Heroes (the Roeblings) and villains (Tweed & Co.) abound, while New York's most beautiful and efficient structure comes to life.
I've been as honest as possible. I recommend this book highly to anyone with an interest in engineering, New York history, or just a good story with great characters.
Rocco Dormarunno
Instructor, College of New Rochelle
Rating: 1
Summary: wonderful story
Comment: I've have spent the last 21 years in the constuction trade , as a carpenter working my way up to a superintendent.I have worked on every thing from your basic home , to high rises in San Francisco and L.A. This book (along with McCullough's book on the Panama Canal)have to be the most enjoyable and engrossing consturction books I have ever read. In fact David McCullough has renewed my flagging interest in my own trade, the story's are very colorful, it's not hard to feel as if you are there.A great read,don't pass it up!
Rating: 5
Summary: McCullough: The Master Storyteller
Comment: McCullough is an amazing researcher and writer. His narrative style turns almost unknown historical events into "epic stories." And "The Great Bridge" is no exception. I came to know McCullough after "John Adams" was published, but have since decided to take the time to read all of his works. He never ceases to amaze me. "The Great Bridge" is a well-written, interesting, detailed history of the Broklyn Bridge, the Eight Wonder of the Modern World.
The characters come to life in this story, and the reader is transported into late nineteenth century New York City as an insider to watch the bridge rise from the caissons below the East River to the two gothic arches that dominated the skyline at their completion. From there, the reader can vividly visualize the wire and roadway stretch across the river until the bridge's completion. The book then ends with a spectacular grand opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. McCullough also focuses on the politics and people behind the bridge, and finishes his masterpiece by quoting an elderly woman from Long Island that remembers that the excitement in 1969, when two men walked on the moon, was nothing compared to the day the Brooklyn Bridge opened.
I recommend this book to anyone who appreciates good history. This book is not just for lovers of New York City and civil engineers. "The Great Bridge" is another McCullough masterpiece.
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Title: Path Between The Seas : The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCullough ISBN: 0671244094 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 15 October, 1978 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: JOHNSTOWN FLOOD by David McCullough ISBN: 0671207148 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 15 January, 1987 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: BRAVE COMPANIONS by David McCullough ISBN: 0671792768 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 November, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough ISBN: 0671447548 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 12 May, 1982 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: A Picture History of the Brooklyn Bridge by Mary J. Shapiro ISBN: 0486244032 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 March, 1983 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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