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The Bridge: The Building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Hardcover – October 28, 2014

by Gay Talese (Author)

4.4 176 ratings

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Toward the end of 1964, the Verrazano (or, more properly, Verrazzano) Narrows Bridge―linking the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island―was completed. Fifty years later, it remains an engineering marvel. At 13,700 feet (more than two and a half miles), it is still the longest suspension bridge in the United States and the sixth longest in the world.

Gay Talese, then early in his career at the New York Times, closely followed the construction, and soon after the opening of this marvel of human ingenuity and engineering, he chronicled the human drama of its completion―from the construction workers high on the beams to the backroom dealing that displaced whole neighborhoods to make way for the bridge. Now in a new, beautifully packaged edition featuring dozens of breathtaking photos and architectural drawings, The Bridge remains both a riveting narrative of politics and courage and a demonstration of Talese’s consummate reporting and storytelling that will captivate new generations of readers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Mr. Talese has written a vivid, highly readable story of the building of the bridge. He has described movingly the people caught up in the project--the engineers, the workers, the displaced, and he sees the bridge as a human rather than a mechanical achievement . . . imparting drama and romance to this bridge-building story.” ―The New York Times Book Review

“This book has the charm of Max Miller's I Cover the Waterfront and the precision of Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon.” ―St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Only a writer in love with his subject could have produced so charming a narrative about a bridge. There are many stories within the story of The Bridge. All are worth reading.” ―Houston Post

“Talese tells warm, funny, and tragic stories of men, women, steel, and concrete. This book is fine reading.” ―Denver Post

About the Author

Gay Talese is the bestselling author of eleven books including The Kingdom and the Power:The, Thy Neighbor's Wife, Honor Thy Father, and A Writer's Life. Bloomsbury has published two collections of his writing, The Gay Talese Reader and The Silent Season of a Hero. Talese lives in New York City.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury USA (October 28, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1620406667
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1620406663
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.7 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.81 x 0.94 x 11.21 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,055,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #675 in Automotive History (Books)
- #2,069 in Civil & Environmental Engineering
- #36,236 in United States History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 176 ratings

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4.4 out of 5

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John R. H.

Great book about the people who built this bridge

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2014

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I bought this book after seeing it had been republished and it looked interesting, being an engineer myself. What I expected was a story similar to David McCullough's books on the building of the Panama Canal and the Brooklyn Bridge. What I got was totally different. I started the book on a flight from Orlando to Phoenix with a stop in Austin. I kept waiting for the details of the bridge building and it wasn't coming. After about 30 pages or so I realized this was not that kind of book. It was about the PEOPLE who built the bridge and who were affected by it's construction in Bay Ridge. The "boomers" in this book share the same attributes as the underground miners I worked with for many years, they are of the same breed of person. It is a fasinating story and enjoyed every minute of it. Upon touch down in Phoenix I was on the very last page and had no idea the plane was on the ground.

The book has many great photo's of the workers and some really nice sketches. Well worth a day of reading.

19 people found this helpful

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Irwin Weiss, MD

Lessons on Bridge Building

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2024

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Short book with sketches of how the Verrazano - Narrows Bridge was built and the characters who built this massive project. At the end are numerous sketches of the process of building. One learns what it takes to be a bridge worker and also of the people in Brooklyn who were displaced for the bridge and access roads. Written by a writer who was quite well known in the 1960’s but less so now.

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Linda Linguvic

A skilled literary journalist brings the story of the building of a great bridge to life

Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2011

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This 2003 book tells the story of the building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which was completed in 1964, linking the New York boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn with New Jersey. It was a huge undertaking, displacing hundreds of residents from their homes, changing the demographics surrounding it, and giving jobs to a huge number of highly paid blue collar men from all over America, but especially from Brooklyn and the Mohawk Indian reservation in Canada.

The work is hard and dangerous and is also highly paid. It attracts men who call themselves "boomers" and who live and work in this specialized world. Injuries are commonplace and there are always a few men who die, but the men who do the work do so with a sense of pride and accomplishment and bond together in camaraderie.

The author is a skilled literary journalist and brings this book to life with descriptions of real-life incidences and in-depth characterizations of some of the actual workers. I was left with a feeling of admiration for the courage and fortitude of the men who work at death-defying heights, using heavy equipment and having to dangle precariously while doing this in all kinds of weather.

I learned a lot from this book. I learned about the actual jobs. I learned something about New York politics at the time. I learned about some of the individual men who did their jobs and lived to tell about it. Frankly, I came away with a sense of awe. The author really did nail the reality of it all. I read it on Kindle but the printed book is only about 208 long. It sure does pack a tremendous wallop and is a unique reading experience.

5 people found this helpful

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F. R. W. Miles

Its All About the People

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2006

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My Uncle was a "boomer." I never understood that much of his life when I was a kid growing up. He would roll into town in his big car with all of his clothing hanging from a rod across the back seat. He was a big man and a drinker and a whiz at poker, pool, and any game of chance. I never understood my Uncle then. He respected his older sister, my Mother, and was always at odds with my Father. He had part of his wages sent to my Mother to hold for him so he wouldn't spend it all. After reading "The Bridge" I understand my Uncle a little better.

While it is a story of the bridge, it is more a story of the people that created the bridge - from those that planned it, designed it, gave up their homes for it, those that built it, and those that maintain it.

It is one of the finest books that I have read - a treasure from start to finish.

25 people found this helpful

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Andy in Washington

Not Talese's (or Amazon's) Best Work

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2011

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I am normally a fan of Gay Talese's work, which I usually find well-researched, insightful, and a joy to read. Unfortunately, The Bridge did not live up to my expectations, which are admittedly high.

The Bridge is more about the bridge builders than it is the bridge. I was hoping for a more technical overview, but I understand that people are what Talese writes well about. In this book, he never quite develops an intimacy or familiarity with the characters. Ironically, many of the characters are introduced to us in worker's bars and taverns, and that is about the level of familiarity we obtain-the guy on the next barstool.

There were certainly some interesting parts to the tale. The life and times of the bridge construction workers who followed large projects around the country were an interesting tale. You can almost feel the despair and "one-day-at-a-time" lifestyle of people who risked their lives connecting iron girders 300 feet above the water. The glimpse provided of the fears of the "fearless" Mohawk Indians was revealing as it was endearing.

And yet all of these characters were flat, rather shallow, and just-well-boring and predictable. There were few "aha" moments, and even fewer of revealing looks deep inside the character.

So probably worth a read, but for Talese fans, just not his best work.

Whoever proofed the Kindle edition seems to have gotten bored with the work. Each successive chapter had more typos and garbles that the previous one. Typos really bother me, and they break my concentration on the work. Surely Amazon owns a spell checker?

3 people found this helpful

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Kimbelievable

Good narrative journalism

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2021

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I used this book for my Narrative Journalism class

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