Author Description

From the best-selling author of Skyscrapers comes the much-anticipated revised 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 thoroughly revised and updated since its initial publication twenty years ago, with all-new photographs and features cutting edge work by today's 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, as dramatic in presentation as the structures it celebrates. Breathtaking photographs capture the bridges' details as well as their monumental scale; architectural drawings and plans invite you behind the scenes as new bridges take shape; and lively commentary on each explores its importance and historic context. Throughout, informative profiles, features, 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 design around the world. The last thirty years has seen the construction of masterpieces such as the Zakim Bridge that forever 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 Tran Valley, France, which is the tallest cable-stay bridge in world; and the 102-mile Danyand-Kunshan Grand Bridge in China, the longest in the world. This revised edition features new profiles on these amazing spans, as well as beloved landmarks, such as the Golden Gate and the Brooklyn Bridge.