The Bridge

Author: Gay Talese

First Published in America in 2003

The book was about the struggles of the builders who built the Staten Island Bridge from 1959 to 1964. The struggles that the book talked about were the builders personal and physical challenges. It also talked about the political viewpoint and the social viewpoint. From the political viewpoint, the politicians of New York wanted the bridge to be built because it would help the population for new york to boom because Staten Island would be connected to the mainland. From the social stand viewpoint, the citizens didn’t want the bridge because more people would move to New York, especially Staten Island because they liked their island small. also to construct the part of the highway that would connect to the bridge, 800 homes and business had to be destroyed.

Major characters:

Hard Nose Murphy: the boss with a bad mouth who was in charge of the building of the bridge.

Gerald McKee: The first major death on the bridge in which he fell 350 feet into the ocean. Because of this, the bridge company had to install nets for the work men’s safety.

Benny Olson: A old bridge man who was a legend in bridge building and worked in the steel mill for the bridge.

David Steinman: The lead engineer for the Staten Island Bridge.

vocabulary words:

Boomers: The men who build bridges and high structures.

Inadequate: lacking quality.

Gang: a group of people who work together.

Resonate: deep and clear.

Consummate: high skill.

“Almost forty years later, the Verrazano-narrows bridge remains, at two and a half miles, the longest suspension bridge in the United States.” This quote shows that all of the boomer’s hard work and dedication toward the bridge paid off in the end.

” Building a bridge is like combat” This means that building a big bridge or any bridge is hard.

I would recommend this book to people who are interested in engineering and engineering history. But it was at times very slow and the story would jump around time to time. Overall it was an interesting and factual book.