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The Great Bridge

the Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
Mar 04, 2016rpavlacic rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
The test of how good a book is and can be is if it remains in print more than 40 years after its initial publication. Such is the case with "The Great Bridge". David McCullough has written a wonderful tale about the epic 14 year megaproject, the colourful characters involved (not the least of whom involved Boss Tweed and the rest of the gang at Tammany Hall), and two engineers - the father, John Roebling, who didn't even see the first year of the bridge construction, and his son, Washington, to whom it was left to see the project through. One surprising revelation about the bridge's design is that it is not strictly a suspension bridge but a hybrid between suspension and cable stayed, which work in tandem to give the bridge strength and redundancy; which helps explains its webbed cable design and why the bridge remains standing more than 130 years after its completion in 1883. This was McCullough's second book, after "The Johnstown Flood", and it is certainly one of his best.