So much minute detail, but worth the effort. As much a portrait of the era, political and social, as a portrait of the iconic bridge, its planning, execution, and the behind the scenes shenanigans by the scoundrels of the age.

David McCullough's "The Great Bridge" reveals to its readers the entire history of the Brooklyn Bridge, from the start of the construction in 1869 to its completion in 1883. The book contains little known facts about the lives of John A. Roebling, the engineer who originally developed the idea for the Brooklyn Bridge, and Washington Roebling, John's son, who continued directing construction on the bridge after his father died.

Overall, the book is thoroughly enjoyable. Especially impressive is the research done on the history of John A. Roebling and Washington Roebling, which reveals them to be fascinating people. For example, John Roebling tried to establish his own town in Pennsylvania after he moved from Germany to America, and Washington Roebling was a Civil War veteran who designed and built many bridges during the war, despite Confederate attempts to destroy his creations.

In addition to his meticulous research on the people, David McCullough vividly describes the major events (including the scandals) that occurred during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge as well. For example, in an interesting case of wire fraud, a wealthy supplier of cable ordered people to swap cases of good wire for badly made "junk" wire in order to swindle money from the New York Bridge Company. In addition, there are several suspenseful events where the lives of the bridge workers were at stake, such as the time a faulty arch collapsed.

However, some aspects of the book are not appealing. A couple of the chapters are extremely long and tedious. For instance, there is an entire chapter devoted to the making and usage of a type of steel wire known as "No. 8 Birmingham Gauge." Yet another chapter is devoted to the building and layout of a caisson, which is a large timber box used as a bridge support. In spite of this, David McCullough's "The Great Bridge" is a wonderful book--the perfect book for anyone who is interested in New York history or the history of the Brooklyn Bridge itself, one of America's greatest landmarks.

After reading a children’s book about P.T Barnum walking across the Brooklyn Bridge with his elephant Jumbo I became interested in the story of how the Bridge came to be.
David McCullough is a detailed historian about everything pertaining to this bridge. Though I sometimes skimmed some more lengthy parts about political issues or scandals I enjoyed getting lost in the 14 year period of bridge building.
The digging of Caissons and hearing about the “bends” was probably the most interesting part of the book. Also the will power and stamina of the Roebling family was truly amazing. Glad I know the story behind this most famous bridge.

It was sort of difficult to get through the book because time moved so slowly in it. There were so many complications and plans and developments pertaining to the building of the Brooklyn Bridge that I sometimes felt bogged down and dispirited...rather like Washington Roebling, I imagine. I enjoyed this story but I LOVED McCullough's introduction the most. If there's one thing the book failed to do properly, it was to establish the significance behind the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. His forward takes care of that in outstanding fashion. In sum, the book was a success.