Great Bridge

Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
Author: David McCullough 19722 562 pp
My rating: 4*
Started November 5 2008, Finished November 20 2008.

“In another time and in what would seem another world, on a day when two young men were walking on the moon, a very old woman on Long Island would tell reporters that the public excitement over the feat was not so much compared to what she had seen “on the day they opened the Brooklyn Bridge.” (542)

This book of is a piece with McCullough’s history of the construction of the Panama Canal, The Path Between the Seas; readers who enjoyed either book are likely to enjoy the other. Of historians I’ve read, McCullough does as good a job as anyone of both poring through the archives and identifying the compelling storylines in order to make history both authoritative and readable. This book which details the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1870s and 80s has two major components: the technical details of building the bridge -- one of the great engineering challenges of its time -- and the personnel and personal elements behind it, particularly the struggles of the eccentric genius, John Roebling who conceived and designed the bridge but died (of lockjaw!) before construction began, and his son, Washington, who possessed a remarkably different and complementary set of gifts than his father and who, as “chief engineer”, oversaw virtually every detail of construction during the 14 years required, even though he was a housebound invalid for almost all of that time.

A particular highlight for me was Chapter Nine’s recounting of existence in the pressurized caissons wherein the bridge’s foundations were laid despite the ravaging effects of “caisson disease” (the bends) which were previously unknown to mankind.

A couple of minor complaints:
The book could have used more technical illustrations to depict construction techniques that the author made great attempts to describe in words; this is a case where a one of the former would have been worth a lot of the later.
A three sentence footnote on P390 briefly mentions that “about one out of every four [bridges] build” in during the period when the Brooklyn Bridge was under construction “failed.” Given that this is a book about building by far the most ambitious bridge ever constructed at that point, the issue of contemporary bridge failures deserves more than a brief footnote.

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[Roebling Sr.] drank vile concoctions of raw egg, charcoal, warm water, and turpentine (39-40)

Hegel on America: “It is a land of hope for all who are wearied of the historic armory of old Europe.” (42)

By the time it would be finished, in 1871, Tweed’s courthouse would cost more than thirteen million dollars, or nearly twice the price paid for Alaska. (133)

Horatio Allen “who had never built a suspension bridge [and] who knew little about the subject” was a high-paid “consultant” on the bridge (147)

Roebling Jr.: History, teaches us that no man can be great unless a certain amount of vanity enters into his composition … For a man to be important it is also necessary to have a good opinion of one’s self, even if for no other purpose than to impress others.” (149)

The day before elections the Executive Committee would grant to each of the families of the deceased payments of $250, or a little better than three month’s wages. (260)

Roebling Jr.: “not once in all fourteen years [of construction] did he ever set foot on the bridge.” (515)