Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary and Analysis

"The Genuine Language of America" follows the Bridge Party to Roebling's past projects, and reaches two conclusions. The first is that engineers are the true heroes of the Age of Progress. The second conclusion is that grand projects are worth the political and financial indiscretions and on-the-job fatalities that inevitably accompany them. Much will be said about this in later chapters.

Roebling plays tour guide from sunrise over the Alleghenies, across the Laurel Mountains, to the first world's first suspension bridge, built over Jacobs Creek by James Finley in 1801, in Greensburg, and into Pittsburgh. They settle into Monongahela House, at the end of his 1,500-foot Smithfield Street Bridge, which local papers in 1846 proclaim will overshadow all others. To the anchored cables Roebling pioneers on the aqueduct, this project adds a system of inclined stays, increasing strength and stability. Roebling...