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Overall Summary

The Great Bridge is a non-fiction book that details the struggles of John A. Roebling and his son Washington in building the Brooklyn Bridge. The author won an award for this work and was recognized by the Municipal Art Society of New York.

John Augustus Roebling was born in Prussia in 1806. He had a passion for engineering from an early age and his parents encouraged him to pursue it by hiring him a tutor who taught mathematics and science. By the time he was fifteen, John had already passed the surveyor’s exam and enrolled in college where he studied architecture and engineering while learning about hydraulics from top engineers of that era.

After graduating, John learned that there were few opportunities for engineers in Prussia. With all the fighting and war, they didn’t have time to invest in infrastructure or schools like other countries did, so he decided to move to America where his brother Carl was already living. They settled outside of Pittsburgh with a man named Johann Adolphus Etzler who had similar dreams about building utopia together but whose ideas often conflicted with those of the Roeblings. The town still exists today and is called Saxonburg.

John was an engineer who got his start by designing and producing wire ropes. He created a better rope than the ones that were commonly used at the time, which allowed him to win contracts for bridges. John then won the contract to build Brooklyn Bridge in 1867, after delays caused by the Civil War had ended.

John was having trouble with the construction of his bridge. In 1869, he had a ferry accident that resulted in him losing some toes. He contracted tetanus and refused further treatment, resulting in his death soon after.

John’s son, Washington, was put in charge of the project. Later on in life he would write about his experience: “After a week I became composed and realized that this is what happens when you’re suddenly put in charge at 32 years old! The prop had fallen from beneath me and now I must rely only on myself.”

The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge was a difficult process. First, they built two towers in the East River and then constructed them from bottom to top. This was because it would be more efficient than building up from the ground level. However, nobody knew that there were dangers associated with decompression sickness due to pressure changes underwater. Doctors coined this condition “the bends” as they had never seen it before; symptoms included joint pain, headaches, paralysis and death.

Washington suffered from a disease called caisson disease. This was caused by the bridge’s foundation being built too deep into the riverbed, which led to Washington suffering paralysis in 1870. He had to communicate with his team through his wife, Emily Warren Roebling, who helped him supervise construction of the bridge for eleven years after that.

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the most famous American architectural achievements. It’s also a structure that caused physical and mental turmoil for its engineer, John Roebling, who designed it.