One of My All-Time Favorites

If you have read McCullough, this is as good as anything he's ever written. If not, this is a great place to start.

The Great Bridge tells the story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. As McCullough always does, he starts with a story about people, in this case, the Roebling's who designed and built the bridge. Into that story McCullough seamlessly weaves a portrait of life and politics in New York in the 1870s and 1880s and the engineering and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.

It is a completely readable story that leaves you with a real appreciation for what it was like to live at a time when everything seemed to be changing and it felt like man and technology could conquer all.

A great read.

Compelling

This book is a somewhat long and slow in parts, but if you stick with it, it is very rewarding. Just about everything you would want to know about the bridge is here, written in sharp detail. My only complaint was that the focus of the story shifted a little too much to the political wranglings and corruption of the New York officials and then to the investigations of their wrongdoings. That got pretty dull. But, the rest of the book, with the thrilling account of the many complex problems of the actual construction, more than made up for it. This is the type of historical book that teaches you things that you never thought about and then you wonder why you never thought of them.

Masterful History of Complex Engineering & New York Politics

For those who wonder just how good written histories can be, David McCullough's "The Great Bridge" sets the bar incredibly high. He takes what could be an exceedingly dull tale of draftsmen and construction contracts and tells a spell-binding narrative of heroism, pioneering vision, and hard-ball politics. "The Great Bridge" is a book for the ages.

McCullough reminds the reader that before the Space Race or the mania to build the world's fastest computer, Americans were fascinated by mammoth construction projects. A bridge was much more than a means to improve transportation -- it was a statement of man's ability to conquer obstacles through mastering scientific principles. Following the carnage and chaos of the Civil War, Americans craved the certainty of science and worshipped the men who could prove that science did, in fact, conquer all.

John Roebling and his son, Civil War hero Washington, were two such men. "Thinking outside the box" is too limiting a cliche to apply to these two driven men. Pioneers in both construction and the cable-building fields, both men combined a spartan existence and a single-minded pursuit of their goals to push the Brooklyn Bridge forward despite overwhelming obstacles.

"The Great Bridge" tells a tale that is often bitter despite the glorious result. John Roebling dies a horrible death before he sees the completion of the bridge. Many of the workers in the 'caissons,' which were the underwater (and therefore highly pressurized) work chambers that allowed the men to sink the foundations to the required depths, experienced the terrors of a new phenomenon called the "bends." Washington Roebling, perhaps due to too many hours spent personally supervising work in the caissons, was left a nervous wreck by the stress of overseeing construction and spent many years watching from his distant bedroom window, incapable of visiting the work site.

Thrown against this devotion to duty is the greed of so many in the New York political establishment . . . including the notorious Boss Tweed. Without going over the top, McCullough depicts the stranglehold a few individuals could exercise over the dynamic New York society. The craven efforts to win contracts and slander the Roeblings are infuriating and make the Roeblings' accomplishment that much more noteworthy.

Several passages are particularly moving. There's the guy who actually guesses what causes the bends but doesn't quite "get it," so nobody involved in the bridge gets the benefit of his speculations. There's Washington Roebling nervously taking side trips to see if he can withstand the stress of making bridge-related public appearances. Then there's the "little guy," leaving from a day's work in the caissons to drink away his meager day's salary. To say that these scenes capture the "human drama" involves is an understatement.

Again, McCullough presents these stories alongside the complex engineering details of the bridge, which drives the story forward while informing the reader. While not a page-turner in the Dan Brown sense, "The Great Bridge" is nevertheless captivating because McCullough captures the essence of these real people so well. By the end, the reader feels like an honorary Roebling!

Such a magnificent construction as the Brooklyn Bridge (it makes you smile when, decades after completion, the city commissions an engineering review of the bridge to determine how the bridge needs to be shored up and the conclusion is a sheepish, "needs new paint") demands a magnificent historical treatment. McCullough has given us just that.

For devotees of Ken Burns' amazing "Civil War" PBS series, you can easily hear McCullough narrating this book with his bourbon-smooth tenor -- it adds something special.

As an additional aside, reading this book will greatly enhance your enjoyment of the Meg Ryan romantic comedy "Kate and Leopold," which opens with an imagined scene where Washington Roebling presides over the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, which he calls "the greatest erection on the planet!" (Fortunately, watching "Kate and Leopold" is not required to enjoy the book on its own merits.)

A must for any student of American history.