Part one. The Plan -- Man of Iron -- The Genuine Language of America -- Father and Son -- Brooklyn -- The Proper Person to See -- The Chief Engineer -- Part two. All According to Plan -- Down in the Caisson -- Picture Section -- Fire -- The Past Catches Up -- How Natural, Right, and Proper -- The Mysterious Disorder -- The Heroic Mode -- Part three. At the Halfway Mark -- Spirits of 76 -- A Perfect Pandemonium -- Number 8, Birmingham Gauge -- The Gigantic Spinning Machine -- Picture Section -- Wire Fraud -- Emily -- The Man in the Window -- And Yet the Bridge Is Beautiful -- The People's Day -- Epilogue -- Appendix.;The enthralling story of one of the greatest accomplishments in our nation's history, the building of what was then the longest suspension bridge in the world. The Brooklyn Bridge rose out of the expansive era following the Civil War, when Americans believed all things were possible. So daring a concept as spanning the East River to join two great cities required vision and dedication of the kind that went into building Europe's great cathedrals. During fourteen years of construction, the odds seemed overwhelming. Bodies were crushed and broken, lives lost, notorious political empires fell, and surges of public doubt constantly threatened the project. But the story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge is not just the saga of an engineering miracle; it is a narrative of the social climate of the time, replete with heroes and rascals who helped either to construct or to exploit the great enterprise.--From publisher description.