Part 3, Chapter 24 Summary and Analysis

"The People's Day" chronicles the day they opened the Brooklyn Bridge, ending with story of how a very old lady recalls it in 1969, as two astronauts walk on the moon. The event is also compared with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, America's last great engineering accomplishment to achieve such notoriety. We see the Roeblings given their public due, all the battles buried, and most people pleased with this symbol of modernity.

Cloudless skies greet the opening of the bridge. Trains bring 50,000 people from out of town, and many more come by boat. Hotels are sold out. Fifth Ave. and Broadway are festooned in red, white, and blue, for the President's passage. The Chatham St. fence is torn down and the entrance policed. Masses of "rural swains" mix with sophisticated New Yorkers, myriads of children, vendors, pamphleteers, and...