Bridges: Three Thousand Years of Defying Nature

by David J. Brown

Book Overview

Comprehensive profiles of the world's 100 most extraordinary bridges. Few humanmade structures combine the technical with the aesthetic in such an evocative way as bridges. From ancient times to the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1554070996
• ISBN13: 9781554070992
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 9.0" x 10.1"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding bridge book!

I've had this book for several months now, sitting on my coffee table, and have read it over and over. My only complaint is I wish it were 10 times longer! It is engagingly written, beautifully photographed. The writer strikes what for me was the right balance of history, aesthetics, and engineering. The only problem is the well-done writeups are just too short, leaving you wanting more. Still, very highly recommended.

nice photo gallery

A nice photo gallery for anyone who ever saw a bridge (and not just the Golden Gate) as something more than a road on stilts. There must be around 150 or so bridges shown here. Many of the views are stunning, and one can curl up with the book for many hours. There could be more in the way of technical explanation. One wonders why they chose, for a given site, a suspension or cantilever structure, or one of these new weird-shaped things. The book may be a bit too democratic in allotting just so much space to each bridge--the Golden Gate gets the same two pages as some homely box girders. For some bridges, additional photos of construction history might have been nice. Regardless, it's an absorbing bunch of pictures, and you won't look at bridges, even those faded cantilevers down the road, the same way.