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In the 19th century, the Brooklyn Bridge was viewed as the greatest engineering feat of mankind. The Roeblings--father and son--toiled for decades, fighting competitors, corrupt politicians, and the laws of nature to fabricate a bridge which, after 100 years, still provides one of the major avenues of access to one of the world's busiest cities--as compared to many bridges built at the same time which collapsed within decades or even years. It is refreshing to read such a magnificent story of real architecture and engineering in an era where these words refer to tiny bits and bytes that inspire awe only in their abstract consequences, and not in their tangible physical magnificence.
Book Description
This monumental book is the enthralling story of one of the greatest events in our nation's history, during the Age of Optimism -- a period when Americans were convinced in their hearts that all things were possible.
In the years around 1870, when the project was first undertaken, the concept of building an unprecedented bridge to span the East River between the great cities of Manhattan and Brooklyn required a vision and determination comparable to that which went into the building of the great cathedrals. Throughout the fourteen years of its construction, the odds against the successful completion of the bridge seemed staggering. Bodies were crushed and broken, lives lost, political empires fell, and surges of public emotion constantly threatened the project. But this is not merely the saga of an engineering miracle; it is a sweeping narrative of the social climate of the time and of the heroes and rascals who had a hand in either constructing or exploiting the surpassing enterprise.
Customer Reviews:
Great Bridge and a great read.......2007-05-24
This is a fine history and many fine biographies all rolled together with an instruction manual
for building suspension bridges. We learn of the many forces influencing the project, the technical
problems, the commercial challenges, the political corruption and the problems caused by honest
politicans, professional jealosies, the long shadow of the civil war, religious scandals, cultural
fads, rapidly changing technology, the medical mystery of the bends, and on, and on.
It is a well told tale. It is factual and well documented. The only quibble I can make is an
occasional lapse into mind reading, "...Roebling must have felt..." Even these rare occasions are
usually followed by quotes from letters, journals, or reports that make the supposition reasonable.
I have not stopped strangers on the street to urge them to read this book, but it is tempting.
I listened to it, instead of turning pages. That format works well except in one tiny detail that
might not matter to most readers. There are many comparisons between budget and actual expenses,
between physical quantities used on this bridge or that bridge, and so on. The numbers are reported
as accurately as possible. That shows good scholarship, but makes it difficult to compare magnitudes.
Another gem from America's greatest historian.......2007-05-22
Through his long line of books on some of America's greatest figures (Truman, John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt) and historical events (Johnstown Flood, Panama Canal, Brooklyn Bridge), David McCollough has earned the title of America's greatest historian.
As in his previous works, McCollough masterfully crafts his prose around one of the most historically significant and interesting events of 19th century America, the design and construction of the Brookly Bridge. Prior to reading this book, I must admit to an almost complete lack of appreciation for this feat. Suffice it to say that in the mid to late 19th century, construction of a suspension bridge on the scale of the Brooklyn Bridge was almost a leap of faith during a time when many if not most bridges failed soon after construction.
This is largely a story about John A. Roebling and his son Washington Roebling, the former having initially designed and "sold" the bridge, the latter being left with the task of constructing the bridge following the gruesome death of his father from tetanus. Also a key player in the story is Washington Roebling's wife Emily, who many charge was actually in charge of the bridge project during the frequent periods of incapacity suffered by her husband.
The background on both Roeblings was very interesting and key to an understanding of the personal dynamics involved in the politics and administration of the bridge project, and some of the most enlightening segments of the work deal with the politics of the era and region (this period spanning the reign of "Boss" Tweed over Tammany Hall).
McCollough's best work, however, is taking the very complicated and cutting edge engineering priciples of the time and explaining them through well crafted language and numerous sketches in such a way that most can be followed and understood (maybe not completely) by the reader. The novel concept of the caissons, by which the monstrous bridge piers were embedded into bedrock, and the resulting discovery of "the bends", was riveting reading.
All in all, a typical McCollough tour de force. As in many of his previous works, most similar in style to Panama Canal, McCollough takes a historically significant event, explains why it was so significant, points out the extreme difficulties faced by the participants and puts a human face on the travails and suffering endured by the key players. As in Panama Canal, politics plays a key role in this story.
If you're like me, most of the background to this story will be almost entirely new to you. Did you know that in 1880, Brooklyn was the third largest city in the United States (prior to its merger into New York City). I highly recommend this book, not just for its entertainment value, but for its great history lessons.
THe Brooklin Bridge.......2007-03-29
It is an excellent book. He went into great detail on it's construction in the first 2/3rds of the book all the way to the main support wires but then skipped over the rest of the work. But I liked it. Not his best, but excellent none the less. John Adams is his best book.
The Great Bridge - An outstanding protrayal of 19th Century genius.......2007-03-25
I had many questions regarding the 19th Century technology used to construct the much admired, iconic Brooklyn Bridge. David McCullough most ably answers them all, along with a detailed portrayal of the genius father and son team, John and Washington Roebling. Along the way, unfolds an insightful treatment of rival engineers, crooks, and politicians. Self-educated James Eads built a triple steel arch bridge across the Mississippi at St. Louis. William Marcy Tweed, the archetypal corrupt politician, along with confederates and challengers, were the movers and shakers of all public projects that took place in New York and Brooklyn.
John Roebling, a university educated engineer from Germany, developed a successful wire rope manufacturing business which he applied to the design and construction of numerous suspension bridges, among which were impressive bridges at Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Niagara Falls. These successes led to the acceptance of his bid for the Brooklyn Bridge contract. Washington, who led construction projects and built bridges for the Union Army, was his father's second in command.
In the early stages of mapping out the construction, John was injured in a freak accident which resulted in tetanus and his subsequent terrible death. At age thirty-two, Washington, with some misgivings by the bridge committee because of his youth, took over the project and quickly proved his capabilities by designing the two most massive caissons ever constructed. These were used for the foundations of the bridge's East River towers. Ironically, Washington was afflicted with caisson disease (now known as the bends) while fighting a fire in the Brooklyn caisson. This left him an invalid. Washington's most remarkable wife, Emily, quickly made herself knowledgeable in what needed to be done and became Washington's link to the on-site engineers as Washington watched the bridge's progress from a window in their home. At the time, there was speculation that the reclusive Washington was no longer rational and that Emily was the actual chief engineer.
The project took 14-years as it overcame innumerable problems, both technical and political. The Great Bridge opened in 1883 with heretofore unprecedented celebration. Washington later recovered from the bends, living until 1926 as he acquired considerable wealth from the manufacture of wire rope.
Factual Errors in K. Burns review.......2007-02-23
Don't mean to split hairs but previous latest review by Kerry Burns is factually incorrect. John Augustus Roebling was the father and Washington Roebling the son. Emily was the wife of John A. Roebling and one of the GREAT heroes of this magnificent book by the brilliant David McCullough. The Great Bridge is inspiring and uplifting to say the least. An epic triumph of design, engineering and construction genius. All the design,
engineering and construction genius would be for naught were it not for the incredible dedication of the Roeblings and so many others. Completed in 1881 the bridge is a monument to all the blood, sweat and tears that went into it. The book is a classic and a must read in this day when the recently completed BIG DIG in Boston ( at a cost of $15
billion ) is already an unmitigated DISASTER. The Great Bridge is a great read.
Book Description
Visit the blog for the book at
www.brooklynbyname.com
View the
Table of Contents. Read the
Introduction.
"Fascinating morsels of Brooklyn history. . . . An entertaining, breezy compilation for the NYU Press, perfect for reading down at Coney, up on tar beach, or out on your shady front stoop this summer. . . . So if you wanna know how Dead Horse Bay, Sheepshead Bay, Floyd Bennett Field, Smith St. Carroll Gardens, Junior's Restaurant, Green-Wood Cemetery, Gilmore Court or the Riegelmann Boardwalk got their names, grab a copy of
Brooklyn by Name."
—New York Daily News
"Information is well presented and well illustrated—both factors making this guide easy on the eye. Hardly a location is left unexplored in this fascinating, indispensable guide to a borough undeservedly in Manhattan's shadow."
—Booklist
"Witty, occasionally irreverent and always engaging,
Brooklyn by Name takes readers from the six independent towns that once comprised Breuckelen to the modern metropolis. Weiss and Benardo have uncovered surprising data and have woven a compulsively readable narrative. Pick it up, rifle through, and find out about—or be reminded of—the underpinnings of our boroughÂ's heritage."
—The Brooklyn Rail
"This book is an essential companion for anyone teaching about Brooklyn, for anyone writing about the borough, and for tour guide people. Benardo and Weiss have to be pleased with their product, and clearly should be congratulated."
—Brooklyn Daily Eagle
"Brooklyn streets, parks and sites are dripping with history, and husband-and-wife team Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss have hung them all out to dry in their dictionary of street smarts,
Brooklyn By Name."
—Brooklyn Papers
"A well-researched and concise compilation of the historical derivation of the place names in Brooklyn, an engaging stroll through the cityÂ's largest borough and its history. . . . The book is easy to pick up, and with its wide-ranging, often quirky fragments of Brooklyn history, hard to put down."
—Courier-Life Publications
“An excellent guide to Brooklyn. Explaining BrooklynÂ's often mystifying names (like Force Tube Avenue and Dead Horse Bay) allows the streets to speak their stories. Walkers in the borough should not leave home without it.”
—Mike Wallace, co-author of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
”An engaging stroll through the cityÂ's largest borough and its history”
—Bay News
"Uncovering the remarkable stories behind the landmarks,
Brooklyn by name takes readers on a stroll through streets and places of this thriving metropolis to reveal the borough's textured past. —NYU Today
"From Albemarle Road to Zion Triangle, the history of Brooklyn place names revealed in
Brooklyn By Name is as fascinating as life in the County of Kings itself. By putting faces to the names of our streets, parks, and neighborhoods, Benardo and Weiss bring to vibrant life hundreds of places where Brooklynites live, work, and play every day. Whether weÂ're called Breukelen, Brookland, or Brooklyn, thereÂ's no place like it in the world!"
—Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President
"This beautifully researched, lucidly written and compulsively readable book will have readers bouncing from entry to entry. By focusing on the derivation of Brooklyn's place-names, the authors have subtly traced the borough's rich history of politics, power, greed and idealism."
—Phillip Lopate, author of Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan
“Taking off from neighborhood names, this page-turner of a book tells of the successive waves of settlers and immigrant arrivals who have given Brooklyn its distinctive flavor. Here are the men and women whose fantasies, foibles, and otherwise-fleeting fame find permanency in the pavements, parks and place-names of the borough that almost wasn't part of New York. Nicely illustrated with an exceptional folio of new photos and unusual old illustrations, and peppered with vivid stories and obscure facts, this book will fascinate even the most provincial of non-Brooklynites. You don't have to live there to love this book.”
—Andrew Alpern, co-author of New YorkÂ's Architectural Holdouts
"Jump into your walking shoes, bring along this marvelous book, and get ready to explore Brooklyn's streets!"
—Judith Stonehill, coauthor of Brooklyn: A Journey Through the City of Dreams
From Bedford-Stuyvesant to Williamsburg, Brooklyn's historic names are emblems of American culture and history. Uncovering the remarkable stories behind the landmarks,
Brooklyn By Name takes readers on a stroll through the streets and places of this thriving metropolis to reveal the borough's textured past.
Listing more than 500 of Brooklyn's most prominent place names, organized alphabetically by region, and richly illustrated with photographs and current maps the book captures the diverse threads of American history. We learn about the Canarsie Indians, the region's first settlers, whose language survives in daily traffic reports about the Gowanus Expressway. The arrival of the Dutch West India Company in 1620 brought the first wave of European names, from Boswijck ("town in the woods," later Bushwick) to Bedford-Stuyvesant, after the controversial administrator of the Dutch colony, to numerous places named after prominent Dutch families like the Bergens.
The English takeover of the area in 1664 led to the Anglicization of Dutch names, (vlackebos, meaning "wooded plain," became Flatbush) and the introduction of distinctively English names (Kensington, Brighton Beach). A century later the American Revolution swept away most Tory monikers, replacing them with signers of the Declaration of Independence and international figures who supported the revolution such as Lafayette (France), De Kalb (Germany), and Kosciuszko (Poland). We learn too of the dark corners of Brooklyn's past, encountering over 70 streets named for prominent slaveholders like Lefferts and Lott but none for its most famous abolitionist, Walt Whitman.
From the earliest settlements to recent commemorations such as Malcolm X Boulevard,
Brooklyn By Name tells the tales of the poets, philosophers, baseball heroes, diplomats, warriors, and saints who have left their imprint on this polyethnic borough that was once almost disastrously renamed "New York East."
Ideal for all Brooklynites, newcomers, and visitors, this book includes:
*Over 500 entries explaining the colorful history of Brooklyn's most prominent place names
*Over 100 vivid photographs of Brooklyn past and present
*9 easy to follow and up-to-date maps of the neighborhoods
*Informative sidebars covering topics like Ebbets Field, Lindsay Triangle, and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
*Covers all neighborhoods, easily find the street you're on
Customer Reviews:
Every street has a meaning all its own........2007-08-16
A well-designed, carefully researched, and long overdue introduction to the history of Brooklyn through its place names. Both residents and visitors intrigued by the County of Kings and its colorful past will want to take this companion on their roamings across the borough.
Some of the entries are overly pedantic. For instance: "Like neighboring Neptune Avenue, Mermaid Avenue suggests the fantastical, otherwordly seaside excitement of Coney Island." Duh! At least the auhors assume we can figure out "Surf Avenue" on our own. At the same time, some figures, like Lady Deborah Moody, who founded Gravesend as a utopian community, get short shrift.
Given its range and accuracy, however, I'd call it an indispensable guide.
Great information.......2007-05-07
I used this book to help me on a project I was doing for class. It not only gave me the info I needed, but it was so interesting to read about the neighborhoods in my own place Brooklyn.
Take a trip to Brooklyn.......2007-03-09
This book was a real treat to read. I'm always interested in why places are called what they are. This book is one that will be read again and again.
Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges and More Got Their Names.......2007-01-05
Wonderfully informative and interesting book for anyone from Brooklyn or interested in the great borough.
Names make a city more alive.......2006-09-20
Brooklyn has several patterns of street numbering, but streets that carry names of people add the presence of those folk, yes, even if the named are deceased! Congratulations to authors Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss for the scholarship and style that went into this handy, fascinating book of Brooklyn neighborhoods and names. A few years ago, when a friend inquired about Maujer Street, Williamsburg, where she grew up, I inquired at the nearby branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. We learned he was a local alderman, but the informative source was only a few typed pages of Brookyn street names. "Brooklyn by Name" has come to the rescue. I believe it is the first book published on this topic. Arranged geographically into eight chapters, it is aided by well-selected and helpful photos. The authors introduce the history of the region, then explain the street names alphabetically. The book's index is complete, not limited to street names, but including famous Brooklynites mentioned in the volume. As for The Bronx, James McNamara spent his lifetime compiling and revising his "History in Asphalt." Two books have been published about Manhattan stret names. As far as I know, no author has published a guide of Queens street names nor those of Staten Island. "Brooklyn by Name" is a model of the genre.
Book Description
Profusely illustrated account of the greatest engineering achievement of the 19th century. Rare contemporary photos and engravings, accompanied by extensive, detailed captions, recall construction, human drama, politics, much more. 167 black-and-white illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Just Amazing!.......2006-07-20
If you're even mildly obsessed by the Brooklyn Bridge than you simply must own this book. You'll also enjoy it immensely if you're interested in books of old photos of NYC or Brooklyn.
While enjoyable on its own, it works even better as a companion to David McCullough's definitive book about "The Great Bridge."
A captivating look at an underappreciated national landmark.......2006-01-16
Fastidiously assembled, lovingly written, and captivatingly shot, this pictoral work is nothing short of fascinating. I really have enjoyed it, and was pleasantly surprised with the selected photography and art. It all comes together well and gives the reader a formidable sense of early new york city. A wonder.
I should also add that this is the sort of work, short on words though not in meaning, that may appeal to documentary video afficianados rather than those looking for a purely textual approach.
I consider myself fortunate to have stumbled across this book and hope to find more like it.
Another fine product from Dover publications.......2004-10-20
Dover publishing has once again put out a quality collection of photographs and prints of New York City. Mary Shapiro's "A Picture History of the Brooklyn Bridge: With 167 Prints and Photographs" is as colossal, magnificent, and substantial as the subject of the book. While it might seem gratuitous to have 167 illustrations of the same structure, the different angles, times of day, events and maintain the audience's fascination. Of course, the older photos and prints that were created during the bridge's construction marvel the reader, and one begins to realize how massive an undertaking the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge really was.
This is an excellent visual companion to David McCullough's "The Great Bridge".
Book Description
Elizabeth Gaffney’s magnificent, Dickensian Metropolis captures the splendor and violence of America’s greatest city in the years after the Civil War, as young immigrants climb out of urban chaos and into the American dream.
On a freezing night in the middle of winter, Gaffney’s nameless hero is suddenly awakened by a fire in P. T. Barnum’s stable, where he works and sleeps, and soon finds himself at the center of a citywide arson investigation.
Determined to clear his name and realize the dreams that inspired his hazardous voyage across the Atlantic, he will change his identity many times, find himself mixed up with one of the city’s toughest and most enterprising gangs, and fall in love with a smart, headstrong, and beautiful young woman. Buffeted by the forces of fate, hate, luck, and passion, our hero struggles to build a life–just to stay alive–in a country that at first held so much promise for him.
Epic in sweep, Metropolis follows our hero from his arrival in New York harbor through his experiences in Barnum’s circus, the criminal underground, and the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, and on to a life in Brooklyn that is at once unique and poignantly emblematic of the American experience. In a novel that is wonderfully written, rich in suspense, vivid historical detail, breathtakingly paced, Elizabeth Gaffney captures the wonder and magic of a rambunctious city in a time of change. Metropolis marks a superb fiction debut.
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“Gaffney has engineered a thrilling Brooklyn Bridge of a novel, at once old-fashioned and utterly modern, grand and charming, elegant and massive, imposing and delightful, carrying us in inimitable style across the rich, rank waters of New York City’s history.”
–MICHAEL CHABON, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
“Elizabeth Gaffney’s Metropolis is vibrant, richly detailed, and compellingly plotted. The territory of her late-nineteenth-century underworld resembles that of Herbert Asbury’s The Gangs of New York or Frederick Busch’s The Night Inspector–but the sensibility is all her own, and her characters are unforgettable.”
–
Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever
“Trust the excellent Elizabeth Gaffney-–in her debut novel, no less–to use the best of both history and her own considerable powers of creation to construct this compelling tale of a young immigrant’s journey through the chaotic underbelly of post—Civil War New York. The star of Gaffney’s dazzling show may be male, but the true heroes are the crafty, clever, and resilient female cast members who, with their own nineteenth-century brand of girl-gang feminism, help to reinvent the world.”
–
Helen Schulman, author of P.S. and The Revisionist
“What an absorbing experience to visit Elizabeth Gaffney’s imagination while it shakes, shimmers, and sizzles with extraordinary storytelling against the backdrop of history.”
–
Anna Deavere Smith
“A towering work of brilliant imagination, as exquisitely written as it is intricately constructed. Metropolis, with all its brawn and brains and heart, will no doubt find its way into the skyline of the greatest of the great New York City classics.”
–
David Grand, author of The Disappearing Body
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Some great touches of old New York but............2006-06-11
This book is well-researched and, for the most part, well-done. I've lived in NYC all my life and know a fair bit about the history of this city and still there were touches in here that were unknown to me. I found them fascinating and I think you will too. The author put a ton of work into getting it right and you've got to hand it to her for that. The problem comes with the plot. The story is soooo familiar and, if you don't know the loser/hero gets the girl -- the tough and smart but downtrodden gang mol -- then you're just not thinking. There are plot lapses toward the end of the book. The villain seems to disappear just when he should have been plunging foward and shows up conveniently in time to be killed -- another plot point you could have seen coming the first time he makes our poor hero look bad. Still, I got involved with the story to a degree; I just knew where it was headed. Now, if you want to read a book like this that still has the power to awe and excite, read the classic -- "Time and Again" by Jack Finney -- still the best old NYC book after more than 20 years or is it 30? Now, that's a great book and Ms. Gaffney can't compete.
Slogged through it.......2006-05-08
For a debut novel, this is not bad, but not worth reading again or buying. The character development was good, but the story line was questionable. The Whyos and Why Not gang members were not realistic and I agree with another reviewer that I felt it was more like West Side Story than true gang membership. The gang members are chosen and inducted because they have perfect pitch and can carry on complex sounds and techniques used by ventriloquists. While, I credit the author with a creative idea, her style was not able to convey the concept well. I liked the characters in the story, but the pace was very slow. I kept reading hoping it would get better, but when I finished it, I wished that I had stopped earlier.
Pick a genre and go for it... .......2006-04-18
Since Michael Chabon endorsed this book and the author had won a place at Yaddo to write parts of it, I thought that I was in for a treat of a read, and yay! it was 450 pages of reading.
Well, yes and no. The book has a great premise -- ganglife and a new immigrant's experiences in 1880s New York -- but it waffles between a full-fledged historical novel (like Edward Rutherfurd's works) and the second draft of a literary work. If the author had taken on one of the genres, and fully explored that rather than trying to blend the two, perhaps this would have been a more satisfying read for me. It's definitely "readable" but doesn't live up to the accolades on the jacket.
But because I saw some moments of good storytelling and a good handle on the dramatic pace, I have hope the author's next work will be much improved over this piece.
Well written, fluid novel of old NY.......2006-03-30
In its essence, Metropolis is a love story between a German immigrant in NYC in the late 1800's and the teenage wife of the Irish gang leader.
Though earnest, honest, and hard-working, Harris is on the run from the law for a crime he didn't commit. The Irish gang takes him to use for their own nefarious purposes, and assigns Beatrice the job of turning him into a credible Irishman to avoid the police and other gangs.
The story is minutely researched, and brings in real people from the era, including the main character himself, mentioned in David McCullough's "The Great Bridge" as a worker who fell off the Brooklyn Bridge during construction and lived. The historical detail is used well, adding a strong sense of an almost magical place of heroic bridges overhead, secret sewer tunnels below, an era of vicious but honorable gangs counterbalancing the venality of the police and municipal adminstration. But Gaffeny never gets bogged down in these details, using them only to complement the intertwined stories of Harris and Beatrice.
The novel reminded me of "A Winter's Tale" by Mark Helprin, about a thief and set during the same period, and obviously pulls extensive detail from "The Gangs of NY."
Overall, very enjoyable to read and highly recommended.
Opportunity and opportunism abound.......2006-03-23
I enjoyed this novel. It is well-written, mixes history and possibility in a style broadly similar to The Crimson Petal, and the White.
The story is as much about New York as it is about the characters who glide, stride or bustle across the pages.
We see the best, and the worst, of the people and the metropolis they inhabit. Opportunities are seized, opportunism abounds.
We leave the main characters poised on the brink of a hopeful and successful future. I wanted more.
Book Description
After fourteen years of construction, the Brooklyn Bridge was completed, much to the delight of the sister cities it connected: Brooklyn and New York City. Fireworks and top hats filled the air in celebration when the magnificent bridge opened in 1883. But some wondered just how much weight the new bridge could hold. Was it truly safe? One man seized the opportunity to show people in Brooklyn, New York and the world that the Brooklyn Bridge was in fact strong enough to hold even the heaviest of passengers. P. T. Barnum, creator of "The Greatest Show on Earth," would present a show too big for the Big Top and too wondrous to forget.
Customer Reviews:
It reads with the drama of fiction but is based on fact, which is even more intriguing.......2005-11-04
It took fourteen years of construction to build the Brooklyn Bridge, connecting Brooklyn and New York - but some wondered how much weight the new bridge could safely handle. One man decided to show them it was strong enough to hold even the heaviest passenger -- and demonstrated this with elephants. The man's name? P.T. Barnum. It reads with the drama of fiction but Twenty-one Elephants And Still Standing is based on fact, which is even more intriguing.
Book Description
"It so happens that the work which is likely to be our most durable monument, and to convey some knowledge of us to the most remote posterity, is a work of bare utility; not a shrine, not a fortress, but a bridge."
So wrote one architectural critic of the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the grandest and most eloquent monuments to the American spirit that our country has produced. Its magnificent site, breathtaking span, cutting-edge technology, and sheer beauty have made it the subject of poems, paintings, photographs, novels, plays, and movies.
Beneath the Brooklyn Bridge's triumphant arches lie astonishing tales of death, deception, genius, and daring. Over the fourteen-year course of its construction, there were many deaths, including that of John A. Roebling, designer and chief engineer; an underwater fire; and even fraud.
Finally, though, the bridge was finished, and as part of the opening day festivities, the president, and two mayors crossed it.
In this stunning visual history, Lynn Curlee tells the fascinating story of the history and construction of the "Eighth Wonder of the World."
Customer Reviews:
A Tribute to the "Eighth Wonder of the World".......2002-06-01
"It's magnificent site, monumental twin towers, breathtaking span, cutting-edge technology, and sheer beauty make Brooklyn Bridge the grandest, and perhaps the most important, structure built in America during the nineteenth century. To people at the time, it seemed almost miraculous. They called it the Eighth Wonder of the World." Lynn Curlee brings this sixteen year triumph of engineering and architectural design to life in his fascinating story of how the Brooklyn Bridge grew from an idea into a reality. His straightforward and engaging text is rich in history, drama, interesting fun facts, and anecdotes, and complemented by marvelously bold and creative illustrations. Youngsters will enjoy poring over the detailed and innovative diagrams, watching as the bridge is constructed right before their eyes. With additional information, statistics, a timeline and short bibliography included at the end, Brooklyn Bridge is non-fiction at its very best, and a captivating history lesson kids 9-12 shouldn't miss.
Book Description
Fourteen of Walker Evans's evocative photographs of Brooklyn Bridge, most of which have never been published, appear in this edition of Alan Trachenberg's Brooklyn Bridge: Fact and Symbol. In the new afterword Trachenberg explores the history of Hart Crane's The Bridge, especially the poem's integral relationship with the powerful photography of Evans.
"[Brooklyn Bridge] is familiar in so many movies, in so many stage sets and, as Mr. Trachtenberg shows in this brilliant . . . book, it is at least as much a symbol as a reality. . . . Mr. Trachtenberg is always exciting and illuminating."—Times Literary Supplement
"The book is a skillful and insightful synthesis of materials about Brooklyn Bridge from such diverse fields as history, engineering, literature and art. Essentially it asks the question of why Brooklyn Bridge achieved such great impact on the nineteenth century American imagination and why it has continued to have a significant impact on twentieth century art and literature. In addition to its exploration of the bridge's symbolic significance, which includes perceptive analyses of such particular works as Hart Crane's great poem cycle and the paintings of artists like Joseph Stella, the book also includes a solidly researched account of the conception, planning and construction of the bridge. Trachtenberg's account of the intellectual and cultural sources of the bridge is particularly fascinating in its demonstration of the convergence of many different philosophical and ideological currents of the time around this great engineering enterprise, illustrating as effectively as any discussion I know the complex interplay of ideas and material culture."—John G. Cawelti, University of Chicago
"Alan Trachtenberg's Brooklyn Bridge is a fascinating story, the philosophic genesis of the idea in Europe, John Roebling's heroic effort to translate it into masonry and steel, and the meanings that Americans attached to the physical object as an emblem of their aspirations."—Leo Marx, Amherst College, author of The Machine in the Garden
Average customer rating:
- More Than a Bridge, More than a Borough
- Deconstructing the American Sublime
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The Brooklyn Bridge: A Cultural History
Richard Haw
Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press
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Similar Items:
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The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
ASIN: 0813535875 |
Book Description
"In the most important work on the Brooklyn Bridge in a generation, Richard Haw shows how and why it remains a central but contested American icon."—David E. Nye, author of America as Second Creation: Technology and Narratives of New Beginnings
"Absorbing and provocative. Richard Haw sells you the great bridge in a thousand incarnations."—Kevin Baker, author of Dreamland and Paradise Alley
Hailed by some as the Eighth Wonder of the World when it opened in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge is one of the world's most recognizable and beloved icons. For over one hundred years it has excited and fascinated with stories of ingenuity and heroism, and it has been endorsed as a flawless symbol of municipal improvement and a prime emblem of American technological progress.
Despite its impressive physical presence, however, Brooklyn's grand old bridge is much more than a testament to engineering and architectural achievement. As Richard Haw shows in this first-of-its-kind cultural history, the Brooklyn Bridge owes as much to the public's imagination as it does to the historical events and technical prowess that were integral to its construction.
Bringing together more than sixty images of the bridge that, over the years, have graced postcards, magazine covers, and book jackets and appeared in advertisements, cartoons, films, and photographs, Haw traces the diverse and sometimes jarring ways in which this majestic structure has been received, adopted, and interpreted as an American idea. Haw's account is not a history of how the bridge was made, but rather of what people have made of the Brooklyn Bridge—in film, music, literature, art, and politics—from its opening ceremonies to the blackout of 2003.
Classic accounts from such writers and artists as H. G. Wells, Charles Reznikoff, Hart Crane, Lewis Mumford, Joseph Pennell, Walker Evans, and Georgia O'Keeffe, among many others, present the bridge as a deserted, purely aestheticized romantic ideal, while others, including Henry James, Joseph Stella, Yun Gee, Ernest Poole, Alfred Kazin, Paul Auster, and Don DeLillo, offer a counter-narrative as they question not only the role of the bridge in American society, but also its function as a profoundly public, communal place. Also included are never-before-published photographs by William Gedney and a discussion of Alexis Rockman's provocative new mural Manifest Destiny.
Drawing on hundreds of cultural artifacts, from the poignant, to the intellectual, to the downright quirky, The Brooklyn Bridge sheds new light on topics such as ethnic and foreign responses to America, nationalism, memory, rituals and parade culture, commemoration, popular culture, and post-9/11 America icons. In the end, we realize that this impressive span is as culturally remarkable today as it was technologically and physically astounding in the nineteenth century.
Customer Reviews:
More Than a Bridge, More than a Borough.......2006-06-21
Back in 1983 when I was 15 I threw a full-scale protest against attending the Brooklyn Bride centennial birthday celebration. "I don't care about the bridge, I hate Brooklyn and I don't like birthday parties", I fumed before storming off back home. (I ended up watching the fireworks and accompanying commentary by then Mayor Ed Koch on TV). My position on the bridge has since softened but only to the point of gentle ambivalence. I wondered why am I such a crank to such a beloved icon (or is it a monument? I'll have to check with homeland security).
Richard Haw looks at a series of cultural and historical sources to show us how the bridge's history has been gilded over more times than it has been painted; and people like me are not mere party poopers but members of a long tradition of dissenters (as well as assenters) who have help to build the bridge into an international icon long since the final bolt was fastened into place.
Central to Haw's understanding of bridge is the footpath as a unique urban street and the experience of the pedestrian or cyclist crossing it. Starting on the Brooklyn side, the walker rises out of the dirt and exhaust of Tillary Street and downtown Brooklyn into the clear air above the bridge's roadways. Between the arches, the walker is elevated above the skyscrapers of lower Manhattan - alone at the top - before descending into the chaos and anonymity of lower Manhattan. On summer days the bridge serves as a parade ground for legions of tourists.
Haw's relationship with the bridge is complicated and his pursuit of information that might clarify or nuance his position is obsessive. He has studied the bridge through paintings of well-known artists and obscure romance novels, he collects memorabilia from special events, monitors construction, and culls through historical material zealously. All in an effort strip away the malarkey perpetrated by a long line of bridge boosters and elevate the voices of those on the losing end of the span's mighty reign. He is not afraid to use Washington Roebling's words to darken the hagiographic image of John Roebling who aside from his great achievements also seemed to be imperious, a wacko and a sadist.
Likewise the opening chapter tells how the bridge's inauguration was boycotted by the Irish workers, slighted the engineers in favor of dignitaries, corralled the general public in holding pens until midnight (at which point they were allowed to cross they were obliged to pay the toll); the event was so well whitewashed that even press reports upgraded the weather conditions on that day.
Haw's final chapter, in which he chronicles the recent past, is the strongest. It is here where the brunt of his analysis jumps out of the realm of the theoretical and is applied the great events like the blackout, September 11th, 2001 and the very hare-brained quasi-plot to bring down the bridge by applying a acetlyne torch to the bridge cables. In events like these, the bridge is reclaimed as a thorough fare for expression of free people, and in times like these, we can certainly use it.
Deconstructing the American Sublime.......2005-12-30
For students of U.S. cultural history, Richard Haw's THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE offers a complete, and engagingly written interpretation of the cultural meanings and materials inspired and evoked by this iconic American structure. Those who work in cultural studies would be wise to acquire this book, not only for Haw's superlative treatment of the bridge's cultural history, but because Mr. Haw also identifies and nimbly employs the discipline's key theoretical texts. His end notes are especially detailed and useful.
Mr. Haw seems to have read or viewed every cultural text that references the bridge and this extensive scholarship is laudable. At the same time, Mr. Haw, whose main theme is officialdom's exclusion of countervailing interpretations and histories of the bridge, should have given more thought to excluding some of the minor works he cites. True, there are works once thought to be minor whose reputations have waxed over time and vice versa. In addition, minor works can be employed to exemplify important insights, a strategy Mr. Haw uses very effectively, but a more rigorous selection of such minor works would have served to sharpen this history with little cost to it comprehensiveness. But this is a minor quibble.
As Mr. Haw's relates the official and non-official versions of the bridge's history and the meanings ascribed to it, he shows how official versions, such as the opening day speeches, present an idealized bridge freighted with high civic aspirations - democracy, social and economic justice, etc. -- but actually exclude the voice of the average citizen and worker, and not just from the speeches and images, but from the ceremonies, too. He notes, for instance, that the opening day ceremony on May 24, 1883, as subsequent 50th and centennial celebrations, it was only government and business elites who interpreted the bridge's meanings and walked its walkway during the ceremonies.
On opening day, for instance, the mostly Irish immigrant men who built the bridge were excluded from the ceremony. Earlier, they had protested the fact that the date coincided with Queen Victoria's birthday. When they asked for the event to be rescheduled, the organizers refused and called in extra police to quell a potential disturbance (which did not materialize). Contrast this with the opening of the Ead bridge across the Mississippi in St. Louis 10 years before, an occasion where workers, citizens and city officials all participated in a massive 15 mile parade across the bridge. In the 1983 ceremony, which I personally observed from a tightly policed East Side highway along with thousands of other average New Yorkers, the more well-heeled citizens, those who could afford a $500 ticket were enjoying back-stage access to New York's other movers and shakers, where they could drink complimentary cocktails well away from lesser mortals.
This points up another of Haw's observations: the exclusionary tactics of Brooklyn Bridge's opening day ceremony where the average citizen participates only as a distant spectator has been the ruling condition of such events ever since. As Haw points out, this is an era in American history where the conditions of mass industrialization and the concomitant exploitation of workers was rampant, where, in the years immediately following, "strike actions would sweep through Jay Gould's expansive railroad network, and troops would be dispatched to the streets of Cincinnati. In just two years, the Haymarket affair would divide the nation. At this time of national crisis, the men responsible for the bridge's opening manufactured an image that blurred the realities of life in America and sponsored a wholly conservative vision. At the day's speeches, amelioration was less the promise than the desired effect" (page 32). Mr. Haw suggests that opening day was perhaps the first public relations event, or citing Daniel Boorstin's construction, the first pseudo-event, the beginning of the society of the spectacle.
Mr. Haw's discussion of Walker Evans' Depression era photographs of the bridge offers an example of how most depictions of the bridge serve the official version of reality. This version makes reference to the soaring aspirations of the American people, suggests that only a free people could build such a marvelous structure, that it is in keeping with Americans' innovative and daring spirit that the world's first suspension bridge was built in America, etc. So, unlike the powerfully affecting Evans' photographs of destitute farm families in the 30s Dustbowl, when he photographed the bridge Evans captured the socially approved version empty of individuals, a modernist emblem of the "technological sublime" to which people need not apply, except perhaps as witnesses kept well off-stage.
Haw makes brief reference to the "New Criticism" as a parallel manifestation of the modernist sensibility which preferred aestheticized interpretations of texts and provided readings shorn of social context, sealed off from an examination the political and economic arrangements. Having been schooled, albeit sloppily, in the New Criticism, I can attest to the powerful attraction of the method as entrée to an intellectual priesthood. I am also aware that because the method mostly treats the surface of works that yields mostly surface insights. It was perhaps the most politically acceptable method for American intellectuals at mid-century, a time when to question the political orthodoxies of the Cold War was to invite blacklisting. And so we of the next generation were taught to look at the urn and its well-wroughtness, and not to wonder at the circumstances that supported or impeded its manufacture.
Until I read THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE, I was not aware of the place the bridge occupies in the firmament of America's civic religion. Mr. Haw convinced me of its importance as a sign of the plutocratic takeover of America political and economic system, the first "revolution of the bosses," a reprise of which we are experiencing today. Indeed Mr. Haw obliquely suggests that there are many parallels between the late 19th, late 20th and early 21st centuries, that the cynical coupling of exclusionary tactics and inclusionary rhetoric practiced on opening day continue to be employed now with an ever more cynical intent and to greater and more pernicious effect.
Book Description
A classic in children's non-fiction -- now in paper.
John Roebling had a dream.
He would build the world's longest bridge and he would build it in a new way. But his way was too new. It took 15 years to convince people it would work. And then, just as construction was to begin, John Roebling was killed in a freak accident.
That should have been the end of the story of The Brooklyn Bridge. Instead, it was the beginning. For John wasn't the only Roebling who could dream.
The Brooklyn Bridge is about a legendary feat of engineering and an extraordinary family. Through rare, historical photographs, informative diagrams, and powerful illustrations, we learn exactly how this magnificent bridge was designed and constructed. From the Roeblings, we learn of loyalty, courage, sacrifice, and commitment.
The Brooklyn Bridge is the story of a bridge across a great river and a bridge across generations, a bridge of stone and steel and one of the human spirit.
Wonders of the World series
The winner of numerous awards, this series is renowned for Elizabeth Mann's ability to convey adventure and excitement while revealing technical information in engaging and easily understood language. The illustrations are lavishly realistic and accurate in detail but do not ignore the human element. Outstanding in the genre, these books are sure to bring even the most indifferent young reader into the worlds of history, geography, and architecture.
"One of the ten best non-fiction series for young readers."
- Booklist
Customer Reviews:
The Brooklyn Bridge.......2002-04-10
This is a great book for kids and it has wonderful illustrations. I am using it in a lesson plan for a fourth grade art appreciation class on New York architecture.
Descriptive and brings the brooklyn bridge story together.......1998-10-29
Excellent.Very good for young kid
An extraordinary book.......1998-04-08
This is an extraordinary book, which would make a lovely gift for any child fascinated by bridges - or New York City. Its text is both informative and lively. And the illustrations are as fine. There are original illustrations of both the bridge and the people involved in its building, diagrams that clearly show how the bridge was built (and prevent the author from having to muddy up the text with too many technical details) and historical photos. Truly a creative approach to illustrating an inspiring book. My son, 8, has asked me to find him Elizabeth Mann's other books - she's written one about the pyramids and the Great Wall of China - right away. What a recommendation.
Product Description
King Lear of the Taxi: Musings of a New York City Actor/Taxi Driver is a philosophical glimpse of an ever-changing city by an actor who must drive a taxi for survival. Through poetry and prose, Davidson Garrett documents his thespian dreams and artistic struggles from behind the wheel of a cab as he glances at humanity in his rearview mirror.
Customer Reviews:
Must read... for the poet in all of us........2006-09-08
We all have stories to tell. Poems to share. Davidson has a unique talent for telling the mundane in the most fabulous form. Poetry lends itself to historical epics and the smallest of tales. In this book he does it all. Enjoy and buy for friends, family, cab drivers. Hand it out to New Yorkers or leave in a cab way across the country. Stories are universal share them all. Thank you Davidson for your wonderful writing.
taxi-driver-eye-view of life.......2006-09-08
Off-beat and interesting poems (and a few anecdotes)all from the point of view of a New York City taxi driver. Every would-be actor and would-be poet should keep this book on a bedside table. The poems will encourage anyone who feels that the world is just too daunting to get on with it and go forward and keep striving to reach the goal that inspired them to begin with. Garrett has sprung back from EVERYTHING and writes poems about it!
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