Reddit Reddit reviews The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge

We found 6 Reddit comments about The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
The Great Bridge The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
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6 Reddit comments about The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge:

u/draxthedestroyer22 · 23 pointsr/thalassophobia

Ooooh a question I can answer! Basically to build the foundations in the middle of the river, they built two massive caissons (think a giant wooden box with an open end overturned). They incrementally added weight to drive the ends into the earth, then had a system of manually getting the water out, lowering people down to hand-shovel the earth, then add more weight to further drive the caisson down. If I remember correctly, the caissons were ultimately filled with concrete and are still there over 100 years later (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Because of changes in pressure going up and down, many workers developed decompression sickness, a.k.a. the bends, or caisson disease, including the architect when he lowered himself down for an inspection. He recovered, but was left crippled afterwards.

Here is a pretty good summary of the whole process, and if you're really interested, you should read The Great Bridge by David McCullough. It goes into much more detail but really sheds light on what an engineering marvel that bridge is.

u/Do_not_reply_to_me · 9 pointsr/engineering
u/cantcountnoaccount · 5 pointsr/AskNYC
u/cosmomd · 2 pointsr/books
u/ZombieRitual · 2 pointsr/engineering

This really depends on what type of engineering you're going into. I'll put in my two cents for Civil or Structural Engineering:

Two books I've loved recently are The Big Roads by Earl Swift, and The Great Bridge by David McCullough.

The Big Roads shows the big picture perspective of how the US federal highway system came into being over the last hundred years or so, and is a great overview of how transportation planning and engineering fits in with politics and business. The Great Bridge is exactly the opposite; an incredibly in-depth narrative of the planning and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, which is a fascinating story.