Another Outstanding McCullough

I have already listened to "Truman", "The Wright Brothers", and "The Johnstown Flood". Obviously, I am a McCullough fan. Listening to a story written by him is like sitting down with a wise old man, (I imagine my own Grandfather), saying: "Sit down with me for a while, and I'm going to tell you a story so incredible, you won't believe it's real". This is certainly true of "The Great Bridge". Who knew that the story of a bridge being built could be so fascinating? McCullough's great strength, I believe, is his ability to paint a striking portrait of people and their unique time. This book will teleport you to Brooklyn in the 1870's. The descriptions of the people, places, and events provide a striking image of America at that time, and the audacity of the people involved in such a monumental undertaking. This text provides fascinating insight into Gilded Age politics, engineering know-how, and raw human emotion; both dazzling, and painful.

Although the engineering behind the bridge is expressed in layman's terms, I found myself on Google, looking at pictures from the period and technical drawings of "the great caisson"; the engineering masterpiece that is the foundation of the bridge. This is a complex piece of structural engineering that is difficult to understand without a visual. Nevertheless, drawings are readily available online, and I recommend a listener pause the story and look at those to get a better sense of how it all comes together. It is incredible to think that work began on the bridge in 1869, and that it's foundations are so strong that it has required virtually no maintenance since then. It's unbelievable to think that the people working on the bridge could never imagine that it would someday be used by automobiles, yet it is so well built, that only minimal changes had to be made to it when it was converted from trolley use to car use. The world of 1869 is so different from ours, yet the bridge remains relatively unchanged, and will likely remain so. That is its genius, and that is what makes it a monument to American ingenuity and imagination. To listen to this book is to truly understand the scale of such an undertaking--and the obsession of one man (Washington A. Roebling)--in its creation.

A word on the narrator:
Nelson Runger reads most of McCullough's works available on Audible. I first heard him read for "Truman". Since then, I associate his voice with that of Truman's own, and to some extent, with that of McCullough himself, even though the author does narrate "The Wright Brothers", such that I know McCullough's real voice. I find Runger to be a good match for such a long listen. his voice is expressive, and he can mimic the accent of the period (1869-1926) which is slightly different from our own. Now that McCullough is getting older, his own voice is quite rough, whereas Runger's is smooth and provides emphasis where needed. He pauses when appropriate, and shifts his inflection when reading for different characters. Although a text like this does not require such radical inflection shifts as does a work of fiction with lots of dialogue and many characters, I think you will find Runger an engaging listen.

I highly recommend this text.

57 people found this helpful

An Historian and not a Novelist

I have to disagree to most of the negative reviews from other readers that have posted on The Great Bridge. David McCullough is a historian and not a novelist. He does not write stories with happy endings with complex plots. McCullough writes American history with proven facts.

That being said, The Great Bridge is an awesome story about our engineering, infrastructure, corruption, and American pride. The book is very interesting because it really happened and the Brooklyn Bridge is still standing after 129 years.

Even Hollywood takes tribute to the Brooklyn Bridge in movies. As the world freezes, or aliens conquer the planet, the bridge still stands as a symbol of pride.

I really hope that David McCullough will write on the Hoover Dam next. There are other authors that covered this topic, but I can only imagine that they are not complete.

60 people found this helpful

Pssst, Buddy. Wanna buy a bridge?

Any book by David McCullough lays out more material than most people want to hear. But he also tells you things you ever knew and you feel you should. Like, did you know that Brooklyn was the third largest city in the United States when this bridge was built? Or how important Brooklyn was because of it's Naval yards? Or that Brooklyn was more than a joke on radio quiz shows? And why then Yankees vs the Dodgers was such an intense rivalry?

I had read a bit about the Roebling family and that is took the entire family to get the bridge built. Yet I did not know enough to not be surprised at what I learned about other prominent characters of that time. It took a railway man to really know how important the bridge would be.

You will suffer with the Roeblings and the horrific death of the father. You will be astonished at their ignorance of the "bends." You will rejoice in their eventual triumph and gaze in awe at the opening day celebrations. At least, I did.

23 people found this helpful

The Great engineer vs the politicians!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Brooklyn Bridge, history or engineering.

What did you like best about this story?

It is a story of many hardworking people who had vision and perseverance. It was frustrating at times to listen to the book when it was describing the politicians and their obnoxious behavior. It made the chief engineer seem that much greater that he had to deal with their insulting and costly behavior. The chief engineer suffers the "bends" and long lasting consequences in which he has to direct the bridge building through letters he dictates to his wife. She is his eyes, ears, feet and takes the physical role he is unable to.
She is the heroine of the story.

What does Nelson Runger bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He has a firm fatherly voice that sounds as if he was there telling the story. He has feeling in his voice that communicates the suppressed anger of the engineer, the joy of the workers and onlookers, and the magic feeling of tying Brooklyn and New York together.
He has a tenderness when talking about the chief engineer's wife, who is essential to the story.

8 people found this helpful

A Tour de Force of Engineering and NY Politics

It is hard to imagine that a book of this length could be written about the building of a single bridge. Indeed, 1776, McCullogh's outstanding history of the revolutionary war, is a third the length. One must conclude that McCullogh became obsessed with the bridge and the people responsible for completing one of the most unique engineering feats of the 1800's. He did exhaustive research and was the first to explore the rich archives at RPI which provide many of the details. While I wish he had spent more time on the engineering and less time on the politics, I suspect many listeners will feel quite the opposite. Regardless, this is a great historical book, and it provides more insight into life in the late 1800s than any other book I have read.

I was very sorry when this amazing story ended.

13 people found this helpful

The Great Bridge

Parts of this book are very interesting,,,, the rest - well you have to REALLY want to understand bridge engineering and NY politics

35 people found this helpful

Good, but way too long

As a history major, there was much I loved about this book. That said, there were many times where I was groaning as the narrator listed yet another page or two or ten on wire specifications. Then there was the entire chapter dedicated to Emily Roebling about whom we had already learned way more than we needed to in relation to the actual subject, the Brooklyn Bridge. These are but two examples of the excess of information. It was an early book, so I will forgive the author. I have loved all the other books I've read by him.

I found the narration to be slow. Pauses were often so long that I would think I had lost my Audible connection.Upping the speed killed two birds with one stone here. I could still understand the narrator while getting through all the access information more quickly.

4 people found this helpful

Wonderful Story

What an amazing story! I recommend this to anyone interested in American history or history of science and technology. The characters and context are built in great depth and the engineering aspects are discussed carefully.

3 people found this helpful

Very Detailed and Interesting

I really enjoyed this book. It is long, but it never bogged down. The minute details about the building of the bridge were interesting. Even detours into politics, e.g., Tammany Hall, were of interest. I particularly enjoyed the story thread about the bends and how medicine of the time approached the problem.

3 people found this helpful

A must read for every New Yorker

Where does The Great Bridge rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The book ranks up there with the top books and is very informative.

What did you like best about this story?

Detail, detail, detail...about the engineers that built the bridge, the politicians, the way of life during the 870's, etc.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The tragedy that surrounded the Reobling's life.

3 people found this helpful