Building the Golden Gate Bridge

"Harvey Schwartz follows the example of Studs Terkel by allowing workers to speak for themselves. Building the Golden Gate Bridge comes at a time when we Americans are asking ourselves, are we finished as a working nation—if and when work is defined as highly skilled, demanding, dangerous, intricate performance by ordinary workers operating at the top of their game? This book, the voices of these workers, and the Golden Gate Bridge itself gives us the confidence to assert that labor in America is far from finished. It has got a long way to go—and the Golden Gate Bridge has set the standards for that journey."—Kevin Starr, University of Southern California

"In this superbly edited oral history collection, Harvey Schwartz brings to life the heretofore uncelebrated stories of workers who constructed and maintained the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Here the voices of cable spinners, ironworkers, engineers, and nurses who tended the injured describe accidents, company safety innovations, worker ingenuity, racism, and the cold, wet, and dangerous conditions of the San Francisco Bay. These stories evoke the daily heroic feats of workers in an era when the nation supported infrastructure and jobs projects."—Laurie Mercier, author of Speaking History: Oral Histories of the American Past

"Harvey Schwartz masterfully guides the reader through the exclusive, real life stories of the overlooked 'greatest generation' workers who built the Golden Gate Bridge in perilous hardscrabble working conditions that would challenge them every day. After reading these riveting stories from a time when as ironworker 'Ace' Al Zampa says, 'You could go all over San Francisco for a nickel' your next trip over the Golden Gate Bridge will never be the same."—Art Agnos, former mayor of San Francisco