Two Perfect Pages
Bridges
The Brooklyn Bridge of New York and the Golden Gate Bridge of California are both remarkable accomplishments of American architects and engineers. Both of the bridges are beautiful, complex and incredibly useful and impressive. Since the two bridges were built at different points in time, in different places, and by different people, the structural design of the two bridges are each unique in their own way. The fact that each bridge still stands today in the same form and design, with only renovations and reinforcements when necessary, says a lot about how present day citizens of New York City and San Francisco value their bridges.
The Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883. It is a suspension/cable-stay bridge. It was 50% longer than any bridge of that type that had been built before, measuring at 5,989 feet. I think that says a lot about the time in which this bridge was created. People were wanting to stretch the bounds of what they knew to be as bridges, and they wanted it to be astonishing. A lot of pain, hardship and suffering was endured by those who wished to see the success of the construction. I think that may be a large part of the reason the bridge stands as a symbol of pride, hope and awe to the people who live around it and to those who travel to come see it. The style of the bridge gives a dark and eerie feeling, like the color scheme they chose for it. Perhaps the most amazing spectacle of the bridge is the network of cables used as supports. The photography that has been captured of the bridge seems to really show the complexity of all the cables and wires and how they cross and connect. People don’t want to change the design of this bridge, even though it’s dated, because it remains an outstanding feat even to this day. It reminds the citizens of the dreams that architects and engineers before them had for the city.
The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937. The structural design of the bridge is very similar to the Brooklyn Bridge. The big issue with the construction of this bridge was the natural weather patterns in the San Francisco area that could be hazardous to the design, like super strong wind and fog. The bridge itself is much slimmer than the Brooklyn Bridge, and much longer at 8,981 feet, stretching well over one mile. This probably means that a bit more knowledge concerning bridge building was circling around at this time, and engineers were beginning to learn how to make a bridge more efficient with less material. One of the designers suggested a thin roadway that would flex with the wind and allow the bridge to be more stable. The huge towers and bright orange color reveal that the people wanted it to be iconic, and it sure is. Photos that are taken of the Golden Gate are angled to showcase the bright color and the height and size of the bridge. The persistence of this bridge’s design, and in this case especially the color of it, shows the pride that is invested in this architectural landmark. After all, every visitor to San Francisco has got to get a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Planner’s Beliefs and Values
One value that I found especially prominent of Burnham was the love and loyalty he had for his family. On page 128, the book tells about how the construction of the Columbian Exposition was so demanding that Burnham was having to live full-time in Chicago and rarely ever saw his family because there was never enough time. But despite the distance and time apart, he never let his wife forget that he missed her and was thinking of her. He would write his wife Margaret several letters each week, because telegrams weren’t private enough. On page 128 he writes to her, “You must not think this hurry of my life will last forever. I shall stop after the World’s Fair. I have made up my mind to this.” To me, that shows the caliber of Burnham’s loyalty and love for his wife because he was very successful at his engineering practice, but was willing to give it all up after the Fair so he wouldn’t need to be away from Margaret and their five kids anymore because he loved them.
Olmstead was in charge of all the landscaping at the World’s Fair. Right from the beginning, it’s clear that this man had his own beliefs about the proper way to handle and view landscaping. On page 50 the book tells how it was his life’s mission to “dispel the perception that landscape architecture was simply an ambitious sort of gardening and to have his field recognized instead as a distinct branch of the fine arts, full sister to painting, sculpture, and brick-and-mortar architecture.” Olmstead absolutely detested traditional landscaping, but he was one of the only people that did. He saw landscaping as a chance to capture natural beauty and he never gave up on his vision of doing so. But, he wasn’t very successful with this non-traditional approach. What this tells me is that he also valued diligence, originality and staying loyal to his own vision.
Holmes was a man who absolutely valued wealth and a prestigious reputation in society, to a fault that he was willing to achieve it through lying and deceiving. He was always scheming, finding ways to make money without ever having to spend any. He used the vulnerability of others, especially women, to position himself in a way that made them swoon over him and adore him immediately. On page 36 the book says, “To women as yet unaware of his private obsessions, it was an appealing delicacy. He broke prevailing rules of casual intimacy; He stood too close, stared too hard, touched too much and long. And women adored him for it.” He was a cunning and physically attractive man, and these are the skills he played into to get him anything he wanted. On page 37 Holmes used these very skills to persuade an old woman to give him her drug store, where he later made a lot of money and avoided a lot of responsibility.
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