Part 3, Chapter 23 Summary and Analysis

"And Yet the Bridge is Beautiful" describes the final months of bridge construction and how the project helps determine the New York gubernatorial race. Once it is decided, all the controversy vanishes and planning for dedicating the bridge come to the fore. The "final touches" at Cincinnati had dragged on for months after the official opening, and Roebling knows this will probably happen here too. He will soon be 46 and has spent a third of his life on the Great Bridge - the time his father had given to all his major bridges combined. His health is much improved. He can get about the house and even go into the garden. He can read newspapers again, to learn about social gatherings, inventions like the telephone and electric light that would have made work in the caissons much easier, five...