Richard Haw is the author of The Brooklyn Bridge: A Cultural History (2005). He teaches English and Interdisciplinary Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. A native of Leeds in the U.K., he now lives in Brooklyn, a short walk away from his favorite bridge.
<p> Richard Haw's book is an ecstatic ode to the Brooklyn Bridge, which we all know is so much more than its 14,680 tons of wood, stone and steel. It's all in here: the builders and bigwigs, the Roeblings and the riggers, the jumpers and joggers, the painters and poets. Rare images and fascinating text memorialize the odd jumble of characters without whose brains, brawn, and chutzpah the bridge might never have been built. This marvelous book shows why we say Brooklyn is the place where legends are made and dreams come true. -- Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President <p> Art of the Brooklyn Bridge is an elegant structure, which takes you to another shore and along the way offers unparalleled views. Richard Haw's beautiful book is about one of the world's great bridges, but also all about the city that makes it great. -- Russell Shorto, author of The Island at the Center of the World <p> Richard Haw's magically illustrated cultural history of the Brooklyn Bridge is a most welcome celebration of one of the greatest engineering achievements of all time. Art of the Brooklyn Bridge is a visual and literary delight. --Henry Petroski, author of Engineers of Dreams and The Toothpick: Technology and Culture <p> Richard Haw's Art of the Brooklyn Bridge is irresistible. Delightfully written, it presents a fascinating gallery of characters associated with the Bridge through its history. But the book is much more than that. It is packed with rarely seen and many never published images of the Bridge, from newspaper and magazine engravings, to movie posters, to major paintings and some of the most compelling photographs of the Bridge I have ever seen. Haw is a wonderful story teller and he is blessed with an eye for the humorous as well as the aesthetic. He reveals the Bridge as an icon, muse, and obsession for New Yorkers. -- Thomas Bender, Department of History, New York University <p> Richard Haw is our greatest chronicler of the Brooklyn Bridge. He has dug deeper than