David McCullough est le plus grand historien americain de notre époque. A mon avis il mérite le prix de Nobel de Littérature qui a déja été accordé a un historien a deux ou trois reprises.

"The Great Bridge" qui raconte l'histoire de la construction entre 1869 et 1883 du pont de Brooklyn qui traverse l'East River afin de relier l'isle de Manhattan avec la vile de Brooklyn. Il est le deuxieme livre de McCullough. Il n'est pas encore au sommet de sa forme mais tres pres. Ce livre mérite incontestablement d'etre lu. Si vous avez aimé la biographie d'Haussman par Michel Carmona il est certain de vous plaire. Les deux livres traitent d'un grand projet de construction dans une ville majeure au milieu du dix-neuvieme siècle. Il possedent les memes elements. Ils expliquent l'état a l'époque de la science medicale et de le technologie de la construction et leurs roles dans le déroulement de la construction. Aussi ces deux livres donne un portrait détaillé de la maniere dont les jeux politiques des deux pays ont eu un influence sur le déroulement des projets. Aussi, les deux livres offrent des descriptions de la corruption qui prevalaient à l'époque et les effets sur les travaux.

Long de 1,825, le pont de Brooklyn a ete lors de son ouverture le plus long pont suspendu du monde. Washington Roebling l'ingenieur en chef avait du compose avec beaucoup d'inconnus. McCullough reussit admirablement a explique les problemes techniques de maniere a interesser le lecteur qui connait a peu pres rien dans le genie civile. McCullough nous donne une tres long recit sur la fabrication des cables de fils d'acier qui est absolument passionnant. Le plus grand defi du projet relevaient des caissons a air comprimes. Les caissons du pont de Brooklyn ont ete a l'epoque les plus grands et les plus profond de l'histoire du genie civile. Par consequence, il y a eu beaucoup d'accidents de decompression et plusiers morts. L'ingenieur en chef Roebling est tombe gravement malade suite a un accident de decompression et il 'a pas pu quitter sa maison pendant les huits dernieres annees de la construction. McCullough decrit les efforts medecins de remedier au probleme qui etaient finallement vains parce que on n'avait pas encore invente la caisson hyperbare.

The Great Bridge decrit de facon brillant la vie politique municipale aux E-U du milieu du dix-neuvieme siecle, Notamment, McCullough nous donne un portrait extraordinaire de Boss Tweed le plus grand detourneur des fonds publiques municipaux de l'histoire americaine.

Il n'y a aucun écrivain américan soit dans le domaine de la literature soit dans le domaine de l'histoire qui maitrise mieux l'art du narratif que David McCullough. Comme historien il juge les hommes severmentmais avec justice. Vraiment, The Great Bridge est une joie extraordinaire.

McCullough has improved as a writer since this book came out in 1972, but he was writing well enough even back then to carry this reader through almost seven hundred pages in three days.

One of the first grownup books I remember reading was a history of scams involving the sale of the Brooklyn Bridge. Now, finally, I've read about the construction of the thing, years after having lived in Manhattan and driven across it repeatedly and unappreciatively.

Of course McCullough, a social historian, writes about a lot more than engineering in this book. Along with the accounts of its centerpiece, he provides biographies of the chief players, a brief history of bridge--particularly suspension bridge--building, a discussion of "the bends", a review of New York politics and the infamous Tweed ring etc. etc. etc.

Most touching--and McCullough often seeks to be touching--is the portrayal of Emily Roebling, wife of and assistant to the chief engineer of the bridge and its outworks.

A book befitting the biggest baddest thing New York created in the nineteenth century. From the initial planning by John Roebling to the actual building of it by his son Washington, this is a huge and fascinating story. As expected, politics played a huge part, but the actual construction was a refreshingly straightforward series of decisions that were so well planned and executed that this bridge is now, 150 incredible years later, still a solid and fabulous piece of work. McCullough has produced a book that is 50 years old and may still be read when the bridge is 200. Amazing.

This is only the second David McCollough book I’ve ever read, and my motivation for it was exactly the same as with the last one: someone is planning on adapting it into a feature film. Unlike that other film, though, a biopic of Teddy Roosevelt’s years in the Dakotas that has disappeared from the American Film Company website, this one has an announced starring cast. *fangirl drumroll* DANIEL RADCLIFFE as Washington Roebling. Need I say more? Well, all right, that Oscar winner Sir Ben Kingsley as his father, John Roebling, and Brie Larson as his wife, Emily. I knew nothing about the Roeblings going into this book, so the images of those three actors completely dominated my reading of the book, as did thoughts like, “That will translate beautifully into film,” and “How are they going to pull that one off?”

The books is over 500 pages, and the bridge took fourteen years to build, so naturally, the film will have to skip plenty. Truth be told, there’s plenty about the book I just skimmed through myself, particularly the engineering sections. But David McCollough knows how to weave the human story into the details, and the Roeblings’ story is ripe for it.

The bridge began as the brainchild of engineer John Roebling, already known by then as one of the greatest bridge builders in the world with four significant bridges to his name. He won himself backers, but when the building began, he was injured on site and died of tetanus shortly thereafter. The descriptions of the violence of his seizures put me right into movie director mode. If they stage it the death as the book describes it, Sir Kingsley is going to win another Oscar.

John Roebling’s son Washington, then in his late twenties, succeeded his father as Chief Engineer of the bridge. Because he was so young, there were some who objected to him, but it turned out that nobody understood John Roebling’s design and intentions better. He was every bit as devoted to the bridge as his father was, and spent almost all of his time on site, solving whatever problems arose, and there were many of them. Remember, this was the late nineteenth century. There weren’t that many machines that could be sent underwater to build the caissons. Human beings had to do it, which meant they were subject to a condition that deep sea divers sometimes suffer: “the bends.” At worst, “the bends” were fatal, but at other times, they resulted in paralysis, sometimes temporary and sometimes not. When a fire broke out during construction, Washington spent too long submerged underwater fixing the problem that caused it, and he emerged with “the bends.” To make a long story short, he never fully recovered.

Washington Roebling’s condition varied over the remaining years, but for most of it, he was basically a shut-in. The most famous image of him, one that the movie will no doubt play up, is of him sitting at the window in his Brooklyn apartment, watching the progress on the bridge.

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Note the binoculars beside him. The book said he had a telescope, too. So he would watch the bridge’s progress, and then dictate instructions to his wife Emily, who would take them down and deliver them to the assistant engineers and mechanics. In this way, she became well-versed in the principles of engineering herself, sometimes getting credit in the press for being the real brains behind the bridge. That she had brains and talent is undeniable, but the truth is that they really were partners. Emily was her husband’s secretary, nurse, and forewoman. She also served as diplomat to the bridge’s Board of Directors, and it was in this capacity that he valued her most as there were several attempts to remove him as Chief Engineer. As with any major accomplishment, it was a fight every step of the way.

Though I didn’t really “get” the engineering sections of this book, I’d imagine that for some people, they would be the most interesting part. I didn’t get all the details of the corruption scandals the bridge faced, either. Boss Tweed figured in heavily in the beginning, but worse was a man named J. Lloyd Haigh, who supplied the bridge with shoddy wire. It could never have happened had Washington Roebling been on site, watching every detail as he did at the beginning. But even if there are facts about this story that I missed, here’s one that I’m pretty sure will stick: in the fourteen years it took to build the bridge, both the telephone and the lightbulb were invented. In other words, this book is not just about the bridge or the Roeblings; it’s about the Industrial Revolution. Great things were happening. Bridges were being built, as were railroads. But in order to make our modern world possible, plenty of unknown workmen gave their lives. The movie will no doubt pay tribute to the Roeblings and their sacrifices. The bridge opening, complete with fireworks, will make one heckuva triumphant scene. But if you want to learn about the sacrifices of the average nineteenth century workman, David McCullough doesn’t let you forget him either.

And on that note, here’s my favorite historic picture of the Brooklyn Bridge: Jews doing the ritual of tashlich in the early 20th century:

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I first became interested in the story behind the design and building of the Brooklyn Bridge a few years ago when I watched the TV documentary 'New York' by Ric Burns. In one of the episodes it focused on this land-and-river-mark - on its novelty, its innovations and the human tragedy that it also brought about.

Around that time also I read, and was fascinated by, David McCullough's The Path Between the Seas. I have therefore wanted to read this book for several years.

I have to acknowledge, though, that though I have enjoyed greatly learning more about this historical episode of human ingenuity, McCullough's treatment was too good for me. I have felt that I was facing far too large a load of information when reading it. The descriptions of technical details were often over my head. As I am a visual person, I needed more graphs than textual accounts, so I resorted to the web for additional videos, graphs and drawings.



I enjoyed the way McCullough puts the building of the bridge in the context of similar and earlier engineering feats. There are so many aspects in the structure of this bridge, that one cannot say that it is "The First" except in a few of its characteristics. The building took from 1869 to 1883, so it is to be expected that during the fourteen years many incidents happened; most were related to the Brooklyn enterprise directly and some indirectly, as it happened with the tragedy of the Tay Bridge disaster in Scotland in 1879.

The most fascinating part of the construction was the design and sinking of the two huge 'caissons'; structures that were different and had to be dealt with differently at either side, the Brooklyn and the Manhattan sides; the latter having to go a great deal deeper than the former.



Also over my head went the stories of the local politics - both at the city level and at the corporate level. These sections I scanned for the most part except for a couple of episodes. Most fascinating of all was the account around the highly corrupt Boss Tweed, politician and significant landowner, and his fall after the Orange Riot of 1871.

The most engaging aspect was however the human. Learning about the outstanding Roebling family - the father, the son, the other sons, and particularly the wife of the son - is sufficient for recommending the book.

In particular Washington Roebling (1837-1927), the eldest son, stands out. Not just for what he did - he was right in that we should consider him as the maker of the bridge and not his father - but also for his personality. Men like him are enigmatic. How can one accumulate exactly the right qualities that are required when one's role is extremely difficult? With his health severely damaged from an early age, he however outlived them all. May be his life was suspended from an invisible thread of supernatural steel.




And he married the right woman. Emily Warren Roebling (1843-1903) comes across as the angel of steel, also wonderfully suspended over the construction of the bridge taking over the responsibilities of the Chief Engineer when her husband became too weak.




As with the Panama story - when not just engineering but a biological and medical obstacle had to be solved, malaria - also here the physiological problem made the building project more complicated. The effects on the human body when going down to great depths were not understood. Some investigation on the effects on people when submerging had been done in France but the new and greater depths required in the sinking and reinforcement of the Brooklyn Bridge 'caissons' was occasioning the little understood 'Bends' that took several lives. Indeed, the too fast decompression that the workers endured is also what severely damaged the health of Washington Roebling himself.

This is a great read even if for some readers McCullough's astounding command of data and fastidiousness in his narration can leave as if one had sunk in one of the Caissons. But when closing the book one is certainly going to feel differently when crossing this marvelous bridge.

I understand there is a documentary by Ken Burns on this Bridge, solidly based on this book, but I have not seen it.

This is the one I have:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nevq4...

McCullough's earliest published book has too much technical explanation of the bridge especially on the wiring. But it is a McCullough and his wonderful narrative of the people comes alive to show their personalities. Particular of interest is the main character who built the Brooklyn Bridge and was at Little Round Top at Gettysburg which turned the battle, he was also broken in health from his trial and tribulations of building the great bridge and the rise and fall of Boss Tweed was fascinating.

I think I need to take a trip to NYC soon. I hear there’s a pretty interesting historical bridge.

Meh. The texture of the times and the contours of personalities are lost, for me, in technical details.

This was an absolutely fascinating history of the conception and building of the Brooklyn Bridge which took 14 years to complete from 1869 to 1883. It tells the story of John Roebling who originally planned the bridge. He died before it could be constructed which left the work to his son, Colonel Washington Roebling, a Civil War veteran and who had assisted his father in building other bridges including the bridge over the Ohio River at Cincinnati.

The book goes into great detail on the construction of the bridge and was very enlightening on how it was even possible. This included the construction of two mammoth "caissons" which were like boxes sunk into the river bed to allow men to work under air pressure to excavate the rocks and sand beneath. As the refuse was dug out, the towers of the bridge were built on top of the caissons until they reached bedrock. This work resulted in many of the workers getting "caisson disease" or the bends as it is commonly called. At the time, little was known about the disease and how to prevent or cure it. Washington Roebling was also afflicted with it which made him an invalid during much of the bridge construction. After the two stone towers were complete, the massive cables were strung using steel wire. Some of the descriptions of the men working on the cables actually gave me a feeling of vertigo; I've always had a fear of heights and how men can work at altitudes without fear always amazes me.

In addition to the bridge construction, the book tells of the politics involved including possible fraud and kickbacks. The infamous Boss Tweed was on the board of directors for the bridge along with others who may have had their own self interests at heart rather than the interests of Brooklyn and New York.

The book really makes you feel awe for how large engineering projects were ever even feasible. I have been to New York a couple of times but have never walked over the Brooklyn Bridge. If I ever make it there again, that will be one of my top priorities!

Writing this from the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge! I give the author 5 stars for his research, but ultimately I found the subject matter somewhat ordinary and slow. Plus, too much of the book was taken up with highly technical descriptions of how the bridge was constructed and mundane details of bureaucracy. If a large chunk of the lengthy material had been cut down, it probably would have made for a more compelling story.

This was an excellent book. At first, I was curious how they could spend 500 pages talking about a bridge.

The author got into all kinds of technical details about the various stages of building the bridge.

He described the politics of the time, as well as the politics of the Board supervising the construction.

He also described a number of the challenges that were faced while building the bridge.

Building this bridge, in the 1870s, before electricity and before motor vehicles existed, is unbelievable. Kudos to all of the engineers and people that worked on this bridge. It is still in use after 135 years.

The dedication and the genius of the engineers made it happen!

This was a most interesting non-fiction account of the miraculous building of the Brooklyn Bridge from 1869-1883. McCullough, an historian, did not just hone in on the bridge and the vagaries of the powers that were or the unexpected natural problems encountered. He fleshed out what was going on in Tammany Hall in NYC as well as what was going on in various parts of the nation. He told about other significant bridges being built in that same era. He told a lot about the Eads Bridge in St. Louis over the Mississippi River. He told about Andrew Carnegie and how his steel manufacture played a part in the bridge building at this time. The Brooklyn Bridge and its problems were certainly center stage, but the entire scope of invention and development during the post Civil War years was fleshed out nicely.

This is my fifth tome by McCullough and my fifth time to thrill to his telling of history.

I love the way that he will develop a scene using documents available for research instead of dialogue. At one point in the book I was wondering how he was able to use dialogue in a non-fiction writing, but then I realized that it wasn’t dialogue, at all, it was simply utilizing the writings of the characters preserved to history.

Needless to say, this is not a fast read. However, it is a page turner in the sense that once you pick it up, it’s hard to put down. Also, this was promoted as a new book. No, it was written in 1972 – actually his first history. I couldn’t figure out why it was being promoted as new since the “new preface” was written in 2012 and this “new edition” was published in 2012. But this past year most things I’ve encountered don’t make sense.

Highly recommended.