Author's note: Architect, not engineer -- River city -- The hazards of competition -- Years of peril -- The trials of the republic of Pennsylvania -- The Schuylkill and its crossings -- The Schuylkill Permanent Bridge Company -- The magical iron arch -- American architect -- An architect and his patrons -- The great rupture -- The specter of Paine -- Citizen Paine -- No nation of iron bridges -- Epilogue -- A note on sources.
Summary:
"The little-known story of the architectural project that lay at the heart of Paine's grand political vision for the United States. Thomas Jefferson praised Tom Paine as the greatest political writer of the age. The author of 'Common Sense' and Rights of Man, Paine helped make revolutions in America and France. But beyond his inspiring calls to action, Paine harbored a deeper political vision for his adopted country. It was embodied in an architectural project that he spent decades planning: an iron bridge to span the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia. The bridge was Paine's answer to the political puzzle of the new nation: how to sustain a republic as large and geographically fragmented as the United States. Among its patrons were other giants of the time, including Benjamin Franklin and Edmund Burke, Paine's ideological opponent. Set against the background of the American Revolution, the story of his iron bridge reveals a new Tom Paine and connects this revolutionary to the vast program of internal improvements that soon transformed America"--Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.