Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary and Analysis

"All According to Plan" examines the building, launching, and placement of the Brooklyn caisson, the foundations for the tower. The spirit of the Age of Progress is discussed in terms of competition with a rival bridge builder in St. Louis and suggests the human suffering inevitably attends grand projects. Still, this first phase in constructions goes smoothly for Washington Roebling and his team.

Caissons are gigantic boxes filled with compressed air, sunk to the bottom of a river, and anchored by stone. They serve as diving bells for construction crews to dig out the riverbed, until a firm footing is reached. The working space is then filled with concrete and a foundation for building. It has been used in Europe for a generation. Air locks, invented in 1831 by Lord Thomas Cochrane, allow the transfer of workers without loss of...