Chief Engineer
The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge
1st Edition
Published on 1. June 2017
384 pages
978-1-4088-3775-7 (ISBN)
Description
A New Statesman Book of the Year for 2017
His father conceived of the Brooklyn Bridge, but it was Washington Roebling who built this iconic feat of human engineering after his father's tragic death. It has stood for more than 130 years and is now as much a part of New York as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. Yet, as recognisable as the bridge is, its builder is too often forgotten.
The Chief Engineer is a brilliant examination of the life of one of America's most distinguished engineers. Roebling's experience as an engineer building bridges in the Union Army during the civil War has never before been documented, and played a central role in the bridge that links Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge took fourteen dramatic years to complete, and the personal story that lay behind that construction is told here for the first time.
The Chief Engineer is an engaging portrait of a brilliant and driven man, and of the era in which he lived. Meticulously researched, and written with revealing archival material only recently uncovered, including Washington Roebling's own memoir that was previously thought to be lost to history, in The Chief Engineer Erica Wagner relates the fascinating history of the bridge and its maker.
His father conceived of the Brooklyn Bridge, but it was Washington Roebling who built this iconic feat of human engineering after his father's tragic death. It has stood for more than 130 years and is now as much a part of New York as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. Yet, as recognisable as the bridge is, its builder is too often forgotten.
The Chief Engineer is a brilliant examination of the life of one of America's most distinguished engineers. Roebling's experience as an engineer building bridges in the Union Army during the civil War has never before been documented, and played a central role in the bridge that links Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge took fourteen dramatic years to complete, and the personal story that lay behind that construction is told here for the first time.
The Chief Engineer is an engaging portrait of a brilliant and driven man, and of the era in which he lived. Meticulously researched, and written with revealing archival material only recently uncovered, including Washington Roebling's own memoir that was previously thought to be lost to history, in The Chief Engineer Erica Wagner relates the fascinating history of the bridge and its maker.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
16 pg color insert. Engineering drawings t/o
ISBN-13
978-1-4088-3775-7 (9781408837757)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2018
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€33.61
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Book
06/2017
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€50.95
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Person
Erica Wagner is the author of Gravity: Stories; Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and the Story of Birthday Letters and Seizure: A Novel. Pas de Deux/A Concert of Stories, co-written with storyteller Abbi Patrix and musician and composer Linda Edsjö, tours around the world. Twice a judge of the Man Booker Prize, she was literary editor of The Times for for seventeen years, and she is now a contributing writer for The New Statesman and consulting literary editor for Harper's Bazaar, as well as writing for many publications in Britain and the United States. She is the editor of First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner, which has just been published by Unbound.
ericawagner.co.uk @EricaWgnr
ericawagner.co.uk @EricaWgnr
Content
- Intro
- Praise for Chief Engineer
- Dedication
- By the Same Author
- Title Page
- Contents
- Epigraph
- Foreword
- 1. "No one ever does just the right thing in great emergencies"
- 2. "The finest place in the world"
- 3. "Something of the tiger in him"
- 4. "I was not a chip off the old block"
- 5. "It is curious how persons lose their heads in times of excitement"
- 6. "The urgency of the moment overpowers everything"
- 7. "I am very much of the opinion that she has captured your brother Washy's heart at last"
- 8. "All beginnings are difficult, but don't give up"
- 9. "I will have to go to work at something"
- 10. "Good enough to found upon"
- 11. "I have been quite sick for some days"
- 12. "Now is the time to build the Bridge"
- 13. "Trust me"
- 14. "She goes everywhere and sees everything"
- 15. "The image of his wife floats before him"
- 16. "You can't desert your job"
- 17. "Time & age cures all this"
- Epilogue: Cold Spring
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- A Note on the Author
- Copyright
