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Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge
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About Golden Gate: The Life And Times Of America's
Product Description The Golden Gate Bridge links the urbanity of San Francisco with the wild headlands of Marin County, as if to suggest the paradox of California and America itself-the place that Fitzgerald saw as the last spot commensurate with the human capacity for wonder. The bridge, completed in 1937, also announced to the world America's engineering prowess and full assumption of its destined continental dominance. The Golden Gate is a counterpart to the Statue of Liberty, pronouncing American achievement in an unmistakable American fashion. The nation's very history is expressed in the bridge's art deco style and stark verticality. Kevin Starr's Golden Gate is a brilliant and passionate telling of the history of the bridge, and the rich and peculiar history of the California experience. The Golden Gate is a grand public work, a symbol and a very real bridge, a magnet for both postcard photographs and suicides. In this compact but comprehensive narrative, Starr unfolds the hidden-in-plain-sight meaning of the Golden Gate, putting it in its place among classic works of art. From Booklist The Golden Gate Bridge, connecting the city of San Francisco to adjacent Marin County, was completed in 1937, at the time the longest suspension bridge in the world. Starr, a former California state librarian who has written extensively on the state's history, follows the bridge construction from inception to completion. The driving force behind the project was Joseph Strauss, an engineer with a strong aesthetic strain and a gift for promotion, especially self-promotion. He faced considerable opposition to the project from powerful forces, including the military and local business interests. His relentless manipulative and persuasive skills prevailed, assisted by the attraction of a massive public-works project during the depths of the Great Depression. The final result was both a structural and artistic triumph that for many became as important an American symbol as the Statue of Liberty on the opposite coast. This is an informative and easily digestible chronicle. --Jay Freeman Review “Gracefully written… Starr's volume, showing how he and others appreciate the bridge in its multiple roles in engineering, transport, and artistry, is a loving tribute.” ―Commercial Dispatch“Starr delights as much in the details of history and on-going maintenance as he does in the contours of the bridge itself.” ―San Francisco Book Review“Kevin Starr seems particularly well equipped to write a biography of that famous orange bridge. The author of more than half a dozen histories of California, Mr. Starr has written frequently about the myths and metaphors that festoon the Golden State, and he seems to instinctively understand the place that the Golden Gate Bridge has come to occupy in the national imagination as a symbol of American enterprise and the gateway to the Pacific. Mr. Starr does an agile job of situating the tale within the larger context of San Francisco's efforts to rebuild after the Great Earthquake of 1906 and the nation's march from the Roaring Twenties into the slough of the Great Depression.” ―Michiko Kakutani, New York Times“Starr eloquently retraces this industrial achievement from planning and construction up to the present day with its $6-and-up tolls. He tells the story behind each of the bridge's masterminds -- the bankers, builders, egos and engineers -- and also devotes a whole chapter to a tragic side of the bridge's history as a frequent site of Bay area suicides.” ―Washington Post“Such a broad perspective is but one of the many pleasures to be had reading Kevin Starr's engrossing new history, Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge. He tells the rich story of the massive public works project in a tidy 200 pages. It makes for a wonderful and never sluggish overview--complete with fine reproductions of paintings and photographs--that nevertheless contains many enlightening details. A small wonder
