The Gate: The True Story of the Design and Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge

I have a bad habit of picking up books that look interesting and then giving up after the first hundred or so pages. This book is one of the few out there that gain and hold your interest, with such compelling detail that it boggles the mind how the author could have compiled and written this book in just 18 months. This is a wonderful, well-researched book with many surprising twists and turns. In fact, I bank with Bank of America, and now when I go up to the ATM and see the picture of the Golden Gate on the screen, I know why that image is there. A must read, and you will never look at the Golden Gate the same way again.

The book is one of the few books that I've ever read twice. And I find that I've continued to tell other people about this book from time to time. I would characterize the book as a thriller or, at least a drama, for and about engineers. The book is highly location-conscious. After reading the book, you'll be able to relate how the Golden Gate Bridge is related to engineering companies in New York City, to fund-raising efforts in the northern counties in California, to engineering professors in the mid-west, to a theater designer of the 1939 World's Fair on Treasure Island, to professors at U.C.Berkeley, and to a certain humble bascule bridge that continues its unsung day-to-day chores in an obscure part of San Francisco. To repeat, I really liked the author's interconnections, that he related in the book. The book deserves to be back in print, and it deserves to be in every gift shop in the City. The book is highly fact-based (it is not laced with fanciful commentary), and yet the book is difficult to put down. Perhaps the most striking and sad part of Van Der Zee's book, is that the engineer responsible for most of the innovations of the bridge was left off of the plaque (for political reasons), which is mounted on the Golden Gate Bridge.