I just find Ammann so appealing ... so deliberate, so smart, a walk-the-walk kind of guy who did something he cared about so deeply, ... I kind of fell in love with that bridge, too -- in fact, with the whole suspension bridge form. It's just a beautiful, beautiful structure. |
I think the filmmakers and I were interested in telling stories that weren't well known, |
The cost overruns for the Big Dig look outrageous to us now ... but many big projects of the past have cost much more than the original estimates, ... (But) cities really don't have much choice. Americans have chosen to live in cities; we have no choice but to keep them livable. And despite the enormous headaches that Bostonians are experiencing now ... in 20 years they're going to be proud as hell, because they'll have the most beautiful and livable downtown in the country. |
The stories of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Golden Gate already had been well-told by others, both on film and in books, ... But here was this remarkable, all-but-unknown story about Gustav Lindenthal and Othmar Ammann ... and how they fought each other to realize the dream of bridging the Hudson with what would be the longest bridge in the world. |
There was considerable danger they'd be forgotten and their contributions buried, |