Bridge Genre/Media Tip: Everything About the Brooklyn Bridge

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A few years ago, I received a 500+ page book on the history of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough as a Christmas gift. The title was The Great Bridge. Mr. McCullough had spent over a decade doing research on the life of the bridge builder, John Roebling, who had designed the bridge and his son, Washington, who directed the construction of the bridge even when he was bed-ridden for much of the construction. Then there is the design of the bridge, the construction and of course after the casualties behind the bridge build, the grand opening of the bridge. McCullough focused directly on the facts, hitting every point but in full detail. If one has the time and wants to bury himself into the research, the book by McCullough would be the best bet.

Recently though, a pair of podcasts were presented about the Brooklyn Bridge but from different angles, those that were not addressed in the book by McCullough. Dr. Greg Jackson is the host of History that Doesn’t Suck (HTDS), a podcast that looks at the aspects of American History that is often seldomly discussed in the classroom. Greg is Assistant Professor of Integrated Studies and Assistant Director of National Security Studies at Utah Valley University, where he teaches courses spanning US, European, and Middle Eastern history. For many years, he has done extensive research on the life of the Roebling Family and how each of the family members played a contributing role in the construction of one of New York City’s oldest and most popular icon.  One of them was Washington Washington’s wife, Emily, who was “acting” engineer when her husband was bed-ridden, but was never recognized when the bridge opened to traffic in 1883.

Greg did a podcast on the Roebling family, which you can listen to by accessing the link here:

https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/1W9a3Bl8kvXoZktedtl387?utm_source=generator

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A month ago, another podcaster, going by the name of Infrastructure Junkies, did a two-part interview with Greg about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge with some other aspects that have up til now not been mentioned. He ties it in with the life of the Roebling family and their roles behind the bridge. The podcast has two parts:

Part 1: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-wwif3-110f22e

Part 2: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-ivz84-10fd5a6

The BHC has nominated the podcast crew of Infrastructure Junkies and HTDS as well as David McCullough for this year’s Bridgehunter Awards in the category Bridge Media and Genre for their extensive work on this project. On a personal level, I have never learned as much as I have with this topic and being a man of full detail it is important when writing a book or doing a podcast, one has to cover all the exits with the detail, but in a way that it is interesting to the audience. They indeed did just that.

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Will this in mind, congratulations on the nomination and we’ll see how the voting turns out. Voting starts after the final submissions are in by December 1^st. Information on how to enter is here.

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