Ammann was born and educated in Switzerland, emigrated to New York in 1904, and hit his professional stride at a time when the City desperately needed a series of arterial bridges to knit together its boroughs and to connect them with neighboring states.This is the first book to examine Ammann's life and work; it is also a summary account of the technology embodied in the long-span bridges and the role they played in regional planning initiatives undertaken in the Tri-State area between the 1920s and the 1960s. Ammann was also the designer of many other projects, including the Lincoln Tunnel, the Delaware Memorial Bridge, and a bridge across Lake Geneva that was never built. He is often mistaken as the designer/engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, and perhaps would have been if he hadn't lacked an engineering license for California.