Professor Starr's brief consideration of the landmarks background, history, and subsequent role in the Bay area's development and the nation's imagination is concise and elegant. His thematic approach allows him to avoid a deadening amount of detail without sliding into glibness. Starr's ability to refine these themes keeps the perspective fresh and interesting. Contrary to other reviewers, I did not find the bridge to elevated "greatest" status at the expense of other similar iconic landmarks. For instance, he notes that the Golden Gate has yet to elicit the artistic response of the Brooklyn Bridge and that Verranzo Narrows Bridge ultimately took away the Golden Gate's claim to be the longest single span suspension bridge. That said, it remains clear the Golden Gate appropriately has a special place in the author's affections.
My experience with this book has reinforced a pre-existing interest in his California Dream series that perhaps will lead me to pursue.
I will echo a complaint registered by other reviewers. A map is desperately needed for readers that lack an intimate knowledge of the Bay area., . ( )

Starr does his usual excellent job of placing this bridge into historic, geographic, and cultural contexts. The prose is often beautiful and engaging, but sometimes over-reaching and forced. The story could have stood on its own merits, and did not really need to be forced into a thesis that this represents the "greatest" bridge. A lot of interesting points are made toward that thesis, but ultimately it is not an objective question and the result comes across a bit stilted. Still, many fascinating details about the bridge eloquently laid out - fans of the bridge (and Starr) will no doubt come away enriched. ( )

Kevin Starr does an excellent job in framing this great American icon into a wonderful interdisciplinary context.. His descriptions, both detailed and poetic, serve to clearly convey a wonderful understanding and an appreciation of the development of this engineering wonder. I found his categorical (Vision, Politics, Money, Design, etc.) organization through his Table of Contents to be very useful in my understanding of the various aspects of the bridges history. The color photos were also very helpful. A descriptive map would have also been useful. I'm an engineer turned high school teacher and I often teach an Orientation to Engineering class through a study of bridge design. This a work I will recommend highly to my students. I also strongly recommend it to anyone interested in history, specifically the history of California or of Technology and Engineering. It truly is a story of the drama of human achievement. ( )

A concise but far ranging history of the Golden Gate and the iconic bridge built over it. I would have liked to see more photos of the bridge, esp. during construction, which would have made the descriptions easier to understand. ( )