Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary and Analysis

"Brooklyn" describes America's third-largest city whose life the Great Bridge will transform, and barely hints at the corruption that will be involved in putting it in place. In the summer of 1869, Brooklyn is a fiercely proud and independent metropolis on the western tip of Long Island, where life has changed little since its founding by Dutch farmers in the early 17th century. However, now its population has increased a hundredfold in less than a lifetime to 400,000 people. That is half the number of New Yorkers, who regard Brooklyn as a backwater hinterland. In fact, Brooklyn is the third-largest city in America, a major manufacturing center, a seaport larger than New York, and growing faster than New York. Brooklyn covers 25,000 square miles.

Lead by foulmouthed, hard-drinking Mayor Martin Kalbfleisch, Democrats control Kings County. Fulton St. slopes from City Hall to...