William Ratigan

The history of Mackinac Straits, flowing between the two halves of Michigan, from geologic occurrence to the building of the Mackinac Bridge in 1957 is told in interview format. A boy referred only as School Reporter is listening to the tales of an old Great Lakes sea captain, called the Watchman, as he tells of the Straits and the life of David B. Steinman the man who built the bridge. It was the longest suspension bridge when it was built and is still the longest in the Western Hemisphere. show more The biography follows a genius born in poverty near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge who is fascinated by bridges. It is told in a simple manner as expected by the format with anecdotes that flesh out the biography. Interesting read. show less

I'm glad I read it, I learned about an event and a construction I hadn't known existed. But I didn't enjoy reading it. It's written in an odd style to modern eyes - I'm more used to books on this sort of subject that show their research much more strongly. This reads, now, like a children's story - a bit about what happened and a lot about hoorah, America, hoorah Harvey and Ringgold, look at what they did and hurray! It's hard to tell what's fact, what's accepted legend, and what the author show more made up to fit his story (he does call it a novel). Female characters are few and far between, and have extremely simplistic motivations; though I must admit the men's motivations aren't much more complex. Longfellow is the most amusing character, though he shows up only a few times. And I really, really wish there had been some maps in here! I have no idea where, in more than the most general terms, the Soo Canal is/was, and it would have made things much easier to visualize. So - glad I read it, never intend to read it again. show less

Some great stories, and the author does a great job of taking you back to another time on the lakes, but the book gets pretty repetitive after awhile, and in places seems to be just a very long list of wrecks. Not sure it's a fault of the style or just the subject matter.