Bridges

A History of the World's Most Spectacular Spans

From the best-selling author of Skyscrapers comes the much-anticipated twentieth-anniversary edition of her magnificent chronological tour of the world's most significant and eye-popping spans, now in color and bigger than ever.

This visual history of the world''s landmark bridges is updated and expanded since its initial publication twenty years ago, with all-new photographs and features on cutting edge work by international superstars of architecture and engineering. Spanning two-thousand years of technological and aesthetic triumphs, Bridges stands as the most thorough, authoritative, and gorgeous book on the subject. With its dynamic design and oversized format, the book is as dramatic as the structures it celebrates. Breathtaking photographs capture the bridges' details as well as their monumental scale; location maps and architectural drawings invite you behind the scenes as new bridges take shape; and lively commentary on each explores its historical context and significance. Throughout, informative profiles, sidebars, and statistics make BRIDGES an invaluable reference as well as a visual feast.

Technological advances, structural daring, and artistic vision have propelled the evolution of bridge designs around the world. The last thirty years has seen the construction of masterpieces such as the Zakim Bridge that changed the city of Boston; Gateshead Millennium Bridge in England, a pedestrian tilt bridge that closes like an eye when it is raised; the Millau Viaduct in Tarn Valley, France, now the tallest cable-stay bridge in world; and the 102-mile Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge in China, the longest in the world. This all-new twentieth-anniversary edition features profiles on these amazing spans and on beloved landmarks, such as the Golden Gate and the Brooklyn Bridge, as well as thematic chapters on lighting technologies, military bridges, and bridges in the movies.