I read this book over 45 years ago while completing my undergraduate studies in Engineering. I have never forgotten it!! The significant substories within the book describe the development of wire rope; the construction of the first successful suspension bridge across the Niagara Gorge; the details of construction of the Brooklyn Bridge; and the comparison of the sway bracing of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and its ultimate fate. These could all have been the subject of separate books and each was facinating in itself.

This fascinating book descibes the the story of the brooklyn bridge in New York, and the story of their builders, the roebling brothers. Roebling had the great idea of building a bridge not with stiff beams, but with two big soft ropes made of fibers of strong and elastic steel. An idea, which now is used with nearly all Bridges of wide span. I love this book, because it is not an engineering report, but the touching story of the life of mainly the elder Roebling brother, who dedicated his health and his life to this bridge.

I could read this book nearly 40 years ago, and still it is one of my favorites. I do not posess it, and I deeply regret that it is not available any more. Hopefully AMAZON can find some and put them on their stock...

I am a simple country boy with little aspirations to live in a city or even visit one. However, one day I shall go to New York City and will visit the Brooklyn Bridge. As a one-time student of architecture, I find this bridge particularly inspiring. Knowing of my interest in the Brooklyn Bridge, a very close friend and native New Yorker, gave me THE SPIDER OF BROOKLYN HEIGHTS as a gift.

Veglahn's work is an historical novel that describes the construction of this impressive landmark. Although it lacks technical details and includes some factual inaccuracies, I love this book! One factual inaccuracy includes her description of the pillars. She has the order of them reversed. Historically, the construction of first pillar was not problematic, the second one was. If the first pillar were as problematic as the second was, the construction would have been halted. Thus, the loss of life and physical damage to the workers (and primary architect) occurred at the point of no return within the depths of the second pillar.

THE SPIDER OF BROOKLYN HEIGHTS offers a sentimental view of the bridge. It is a story of people not primarily of the technological marvel. Despite some inaccuracies, I dearly love this book -- not only for the content, but also for the person who gave it to me.

This book is a very odd duck, as they say.
Karl Roebling is obviously not a historian, or at least not a writer of history. The first thing you'll note about this book is that it is not the normal history book - it is full of exclamation points, and devoid of citations (footnotes and the like), which he explains in his Acknowledgements.
That said, his points are true and valid - he presents 14 Myths about WW2, starting with "that war news gave a true picture" and ending with "that the bombing of Germany wasn't effective". It includes my own personal favorite: "That the western allies, including the US, defeated Germany."

I recommend it for its message, but it will offend many due to its casual writing style. It is not a scholarly work, though I don't argue with his points.